Leonie Feliciaa
patreon
HOW TO START TRAVELING? pt. 1
🕑 Added 2024-12-17 14:32:05 +0000 UTCthis is probably one of the top 3 most asked questions I get. Lets be real, as much as you guys probably enjoy watching me through the screen (guessing because all of you are supporters here?😛), probably the thought of you yourself traveling the world doesn’t sound too bad either, does it? And if it does, fair play! I have realized way back that traveling isn’t for everyone, some people just enjoy a more stable and routine-focused life. Also, there is many different types of traveling that cater to all sorts of personalities.
Let me first tell you how I started traveling and where my passion for it originated. Its less complicated than you think, I promise.
I always knew I wanted to explore and see the world. As I grew older and thought more about wjy I am the way I am, I started to think that my mom planted that planted. She would always watch documentaries with me and my sister on tuesday, as they were shown on thus one channel. I remember seeing a man cross rivers with crocodiles, videographers documenting the rare animal species in Africa and so on. I was deeply inspired and felt this spark light up with in me. Obviously, I was only 8 at the time, so besides feeling the spark there was nothing I could have done, realistically. When I turned 12, I actually went abroad for a 3 week summer language exchange to california. That was also something that came up through a conversation with my mom. I was lucky, she always supported my dreams and even gave me the ideas for some of them. I am well aware of the privilege that goes with having supportive parents, that can also support the dreams of their child financially. That language exchange was of course a guided trip, yet my first experience living with a different family and seeing a complete different culture. I loved it! Safe to say, I stood out as a 12 year old so far a way from home. I was the youngest of my group. My abroad experience continued when I was 15, and I left with only a suitcase and some pictures from home to live a year in.. Alabama. I didnt really choose to go to Alabama yet I was excited to go to a state I had no idea of before😂 My exchange year was a complex experience that I can certainly talk more about another time, but for now I‘ll say: It changed me, and therefore my life fundamentally. It made me grow to an independent individual, taught me how to navigate tricky situations on my own and made me understand myself, and who I am and want to be as a person more profoundly. It was building the baseline of the person that I am today. The last two years of my high school feel a bit blurred due to COVID and the lockdowns. In my first year back, it took me a lot of time to understand and integrate the experience I made on exchange. My teachers would tell me how much I have changed, but I haven‘t realized it as much at the time. My last year, a lot changed. I started traveling solo on random weekends, started meeting random people from social media (that was way before my instagram-time) & truly felt like I am finally closer to becoming the person I am. It felt like I was finally spreading my wings. I guess that goes along with the fact that that year (2021) I graduated, which also meant ultimate freedom to me. Freedom to finally go wherever ai want, do whatever I want and become whoever I want.
When I told my parents that I don’t want to study medicine anymore, my mom already knew. I sometimes don’t immediately tell my parents black on white what I will do, bit start implementing the idea of my goals and dreams into their head through random little conversations. Back then it was „ohh, I‘m really loving photography, maybe I wanna explore it more seriously in the future…“, now that would be „iran has such amazing culture! Mom, didn’t you want to travel to iran back in the day?“. Oh, how times change😂 I was never one short of ambition. Studying in Austria sounded boring to me. Germany too, although they have amazing film and photo schools. NYC always sounded cool, and there were many great chools, such as NYU, and so on. So I thought, why not, lets give it a shot. The next 5 months I dedicated to that dream. Anyone who lives in the US or has applied to a school there knows, how crazy the application process can be… especially when you arent familiar with the system. But hard work paid off.. and so I submitted 5 applications on January 5th. January 19th, I left for my first far away solo trip. That past fall, I traveled a bit here through europe, solo as well, but not anything longer than 2 weeks as I forced myself to stay focused on applications.
But finally, my adventures started.
Part II tomorrow as I‘m not boarding my plane HOME, MWUAH and beautiful tuesday to all of you xx
Comments
Lucila Pahua
Can I see pictures
Alex C
Love that your mom is as supportive as she is
Rex
Good for you! I can't go to Iran. Even if I had relatives there, it would be dangerous for me. Iranian-Americans tend to become state hostages. It's still risky for you, especially with your published photos. You would be on the radar of the Guidance Police. On 16 September 2022 a woman named Mahsa Amini died in police custody following her arrest by the Guidance Patrol, known commonly as the "morality police", for inadequately covering her hair. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/09/what-happened-to-mahsa-zhina-amini/ Before you go, make sure to study with the Iranian wife of a Shia imam. That's the only way for a Western woman to understand the nuances of the patriarchy. Knowing more about Islam will help, but the Islamic Republic of Iran, which identifies itself as a "Unitary presidential theocratic Islamic republic", interprets the Koran to support a theocratic patriarchy which demonizes women. You cannot use the Koran as interpreted by Indonesian Sunni as a comparative guide to Iranian culture.
