If what my friend said about the world existing in each person's own way were true, I wondered what their world would look like.
So the first thing to do was to destroy that pyramid.
When I decided to destroy the triangular world that existed inside me, I packed my backpack.
I decided to go as far away as possible and not come back for a long time.


While everyone else is running towards efficiency and profit, there are people like me who wander the world alone, carrying a backpack.
A foolish person wandering in useless romance and wandering.
The only word that could understand me like this was 'traveler'.

“There is no need to become anything.
Think about the things you want to do.
Just like this trip I just embarked on.
If you want to travel, just pack a backpack.
If you want to see the sunset, just stop what you're doing and look up at the sky.
If you want to make money, make money! Just live as yourself and experience this world.
Not everything in the world exists to be possessed.
It's for experience.
“I hope I’ll still be traveling this beautiful world in 30 years.”

Because of the excessively fertile yellow soil, children's shoes always got dirty easily.
So every evening we huddled together in the backyard.
And then he held a brush bigger than his shoes and cleaned his slippers.
They splashed water with yellow clay and even attacked each other for fun.
That was one of the things that ended our day.
One day, my shoes were polished white and left in the yard.
Someone had brushed my teeth for me.
At times like that, I carefully observed the faces of the children, who were as lovely as chocolate balls.
There was definitely one person with a proud expression on their face.

“This is where my dream begins.”
“You said your dream was to build a school, right, Lidya?”
“It’s not just school.
We will build a school where children from poor villages can receive a free education.
I'll make sure the kids wear uniforms, not torn clothes.
I'll make you learn math and English.
We'll make sure you have a hearty lunch here too.
“This is what you will be helping me with from now on.”

Lydia's dream had great power.
It moved others and changed the town.
During the month I was lost in her dreams, I also harbored a wish similar to Lydia's.
I wanted to make the lives of Ugandan children better than they are now.
It wasn't my dream, and it was different from the days I'd lived until then.
Someone's dream was so beautiful that it could change a person's actions, move a community, and change the world.

That day too, I was hammering in front of the school as usual.
After hammering nails into a pillar for a while, I raised my head to wipe the sweat.
The child was holding on to the pillar with all his might, his hands as small as bracken.
It was helping me keep the fence from being pushed away by the hammer.
I slowly looked into the child's shining eyes.

“From now on, I will learn to write and read a lot of books at this school.
And I'm late too.
If you think the teacher is wrong, it's okay to talk back.
So just wait a little bit until school opens.
Got it?”

Now I want to follow the values ​​that will not disappear.
It is my own value that does not disappear with the passage of time and is valid wherever I am in the world.
It's okay to just throw on a shabby t-shirt.
I don't mind if it's something I like.
It's okay if you're not good at studying.
Because getting to know ‘myself’ comes first.
It's okay if you don't make much money.
All you need to do is have more free time than the rich.
It's okay to skip class one day and go out and play.
If that day is more important than class, then it definitely has to be done.
It's okay to feel deprived when looking at others.
If it's a feeling of deprivation of what I truly desire, then that's okay.
It's okay to be jealous of something.
Jealousy of wisdom, not of aesthetic beauty.

“That’s what parkour is.
Getting away from what everyone thinks is the way.
Climbing walls and striding across collapsed rooftops.
“Where we look is our path.” “Remember, obstacles are the path.”

The dreams I have these days take me to a new world.
Yesterday I stopped by the damp jungle where Peter Pan lives.
Even though it was a river where crocodiles lived, it was still blue.
I swam here and there in the river that resembled the sea, looking for dolphins.
Yeah, I'd rather be a dolphin.
I will swim for a long time in life under the water.
It will become as wide as the sea.

We can't judge ourselves until we try something new.
It is arrogance to have tastes and clear likes and dislikes as if you have lived your entire life.
We can never know anything until we throw ourselves into the deep water.


“I used to think there were only two ways to live in this world.
Stay high or fall low.
But that wasn't it.
“The world was as wide as the universe.”

I'm not afraid of the waves anymore.
When strong waves crash, close your eyes tightly.
Exhale slowly and relax your entire body.
And it sinks into the water.
The moment you open your eyes, a new world unfolds.
In that way, all suffering becomes temporary.


Life and death were divided around me.
To the right, corpses were burning, and to the left, people covered in red, orange, yellow, and green powder were enjoying the festival.
But I soon found out.
The fact that death and life have always been with us in that way.
The contradiction of celebration and death coexisting was our life.

In India, my impatience gradually subsided.
For the ever-laid-back Indians, my speed was average.
Among those peaceful people, I sometimes even felt suffocated.
Even when I was stamping my feet, worried that I would be late for the train, the rickshaw driver said this to me.
“Shanti, Shanti! The train will be later than you anyway.”

Life is a process of finding one's own shape.
There is a dream in that process.
There is a trip.
And there is wandering.
Looking back, I saw a road continuing on without a visible starting point.
There was a sea on that road.
There was a desert.
And there was an old diary.
I am only now beginning to look at the place where I stand, on my path.


“It was a trip I took because I had no dreams.
And now I travel for my dreams.”

--- From the text