gifts that i received from strangers during travel
story-background: i’m eric. currently nomading in russia,i often sleep at strangers houses instead of hostels.
what is a gift?
before deeply think about this question, i was defining gift as a thing that strangers give it to me when i decided to leave their home. like this scenario
host: “eric, this chocolate is for you if you are tired during your hitchhike trip, you need to be energized, use this, see you in the future!”
but i realized that anything could be my gift, it’s not necessary have to be given whenever i leave people’s house or traveling.
the freedom to buy books because of my parents were gifts. the awareness of english is super important were also gifts i received from my parents at 17 year old. badminton racket received from my brother at my 19 year old birthday were gifts being traditionally recognized. even, in hindsight, the being bullied experience from my mom and some of my junior high school classmate were gifts because this makes me experience different aspect of life.
i received so many gifts from russian
i would classify myself as a super low budget traveler, not only because i don’t have salary at the moment, or i’m a student, or i spend most of my time on writing articles and making youtube but not making single money, but actually i want to experience being homeless guy asking help from others.
but i never expected to / didn’t ask for receive so many gifts from people! every host gave me so many food whenever i left their house, chocolate, vodka, bread, noodles. of course not even mention, while living at their house, they have always been sharing their food and room with me.
but for me the coolest unexpected gift is that, one of my hosts gave me a t shirt since all i have is snow pants/ shoes and columbia long sleeves, i was only planning to travel from march to june, but who knows vladmir putin is so generous, giving all foreigners 3 more months visa for free. this t shirt was a super amazing gift because start from june, the weather would be hot in russia.
one of my dream accomplished… before my nomad trip in russia, while still living in taiwan, i wonder how could i travel 365 days without buying clothe ? the answer is — exchange clothes with people. so now when this host give me her clothe without asking me to give her clothe. i feel so amazed. but this is just the beginning….
after i hitchhiked to khabarovsk, i further try my very first time hitchhiking in city center, i did success, but i forgot to bring my beanie with me — i left in the car… but after just 2 days, one of my host saw that i was suffering from cold weather since april is still cold in russia, she gave me her spare beanie without asking it back! and literally just after 1 week, i didn’t bring my jacket, beanie and scarf with me since the morning and afternoon was so hot, who knows at night while hanging out with host at dacha, it became super cold. this host again, gave me her spare beanie, asking me to not return it back.
further this host, gave me a Dandelion, like this in the picture
in june, she put setting spray on it to prevent it disappear soon, but now in july, dandelion still can’t resist the principle of nature. now imagine this is a person, shouldnt we learn more how to “let go”? even make it as a formal class in high school?
but this is not the last clothe i received from russian, after i hitchhiked to olkhon island( an island in siberia),one mom gave her jacket to me after i told her my lonely journey in russia and my dream.
why gave me jacket when i already have it ? well i can’t believe i forgot to bring my jacket with me when i left my host. and for convenience i put my beanie and scarf inside the pocket and now it was also being left there in the pocket, yeah soooo convenient, together being forgotten by me…
this new jacket given by this island mom, literally saved my life because all of the clothes i bought from uniqlo — heattech ultra warm thermal, are useless when facing strong wind in russia…
paying forward without asking back
when i was young, i keep hearing adults telling kids
“now we spend effort on you, in the future it’s your turn to pay back to society”
or keep hearing my mom warning me
“eric !how many percent of your salary you will give me in the future ?”
“eric! you have been eating our family’s food for 20 years, you wear our clothe , live in our house, how could you be so irresponsible, dropping out of university and live alone outside our hometown taiwan ?”
i disliked my mom before because of her conditional “love”, most of her efforts on me she take notes down, and wanted to receive equal gifts from me. especially money… the thing that i most lacking of at this phrase of my life.
but now when i put myself in her shoe, i would also conditionally spend my effort on my son, to some degree expect my son to become the person that i wish, not to do murder or hurt other people too much.
but isn’t this normal? to reap what we sow. of course, life is unpredictable, but you could at least expect/receive some feedback after you pay efforts, especially the more you spend effort the more you expect.
so the concept of “ proportion” kicks in. for example, if my mom wasn’t asking me to make me feel obligatory to give her my salary even when i have financial problem. but if she she only ask me
“eric, please work hard, becasue we work hard on you”
it would be more reasonable for me to think this is a unconditional love, “cuz she didn’t ask too much”
in the future there will be more and more people emphasizing the idea of “ giving it without expecting having back” , but please don’t be too stressful when you are not doing it 100 percent, after all according to our science principal of life, if you slightly throw a stone vertically, it would be very likely to return back to your hand.
so after all this concept “ paying it without asking back “ its actually saying we should be patient and don’t expect things return back to you immediately, don’t be pissed off when things doesn’t go as your wishes at the beginning , in the long run, your efforts would all paid off, but in an unexpected way:))
