I always liked the date of September 18 when we celebrate the Independence Day in Chile. I love it because it’s a time when, despite its historical memories and where it really comes from, is one of the few moments when the country joins in a mood of celebration, of receiving spring, of enjoying life.
September is one of the few times in which the atmosphere that is lived in Chile is generalized of celebration and friendship, of sharing a few days as equals, as Chileans who want to have fun.
It is also a week before the International Tourism Day, which is the same day as my birthday.
I love “empanadas”, “anticuchos”, and barbeques and in September you can smell them everywhere. It doesn’t matter if you celebrate it with friends, with the family, at home or at the “fondas”, there is always at least one day when you will share that special feeling that is being part of Chile.
WARNING
This is a very personal post and I had not dared to write it before, but today I feel it is necessary for you to know me a little better and to help you understand my process. So far I have only discussed this with my closest friends and in the public talks, I have given in Chile.
Maybe it will help you to wake up and take control of your own life in a simpler way. You can leave at this point if you don’t want to know so many details about me or you can keep reading under your own responsibility hahaha.
If you want to know more about personal growth and life path, please write me in the comments below because I have a lot to share about these topics and I would like to know if they are of interest to you.
What is it that I celebrate today every September 18?
Seven years ago, this day gained an even more important value than it had before 2011.
That day I died.
Yes.
On September 18 I had a car accident that almost makes me leave this beautiful planet.
I was a passenger in a car that overturned out of the way.
I thought I was dead, and when I regained consciousness after being unconscious for several minutes, I thought I was already dead.
I had never felt so peaceful and calm as in those seconds or minutes, but at the same time, I felt a deep frustration and pity because I had died so young.
I HAD YET STILL SO MUCH TO LIVE.
There were so many things I had not yet done, so many destinations that I had not yet visited, I had not yet found how to be happy and I didn’t wanted to die yet.
The craziest of all is that I sensed that something was going to happen, I was not sure if I had to go to that lunch outside of Santiago and I asked my sister and mom about 25 times if it was a good idea or not to go. The next day I had to work very early to take care of disabled children and I would only go for a few hours to this barbeque.
But fate had prepared a different event.
From that day my life took a complete turn and in 180º.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that day marked a before and after in my life. That accident was the catalyst and also the internal and physical earthquake that I needed to make that change.
We, the stubborn ones, sometimes need experiences like these to awaken and take responsibility for making our lives what we have to do with them. Fortunately, that accident only left me very small consequences in the physical body, the most important were in the emotional.
After living many years trying to be part of a system that didn’t fit me and to live my life according to what others told me would make me happy, only after the feeling that I had lost my life I had the courage to say ENOUGH and finally really take the command of my life.
It was like this, the road without return began, in which I started to wake up. I began to realize that I was not being happy and together I started to question again what I really wanted to do with my life.
I can’t lie to you, it was not automatic and I would be fake if I told you that one day I woke up and knew exactly what to do with my new life. Moreover, they were hard and difficult years because I could no longer avoid the new path that had been drawn.
Actually with all this I was much more lost than before, because now I knew that I could not remain as I was until then, I was not happy to work to make others rich, it didn’t make me happy to live to only earn money to buy the things that would supposedly make me happy, I no longer felt connected with my friends who were talking badly about others or showing how they felt superior to everyone, or having to go every day from to my beautiful apartment in the center of Santiago that I had decorated with so much love I felt alone I was alone with an empty soul.
There were small moments and situations in which I was realizing that I couldn’t wait any longer. Changing was mandatory, or that second chance I felt I had been given was not worth at all.
The problem was that I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life or how to make that change.
On this path of living a totally automated life, something terrible had happened: I had lost the connection with myself, with my soul, and with the most important thing in life that was myself.
So I started my new duty. I went back to reading my philosophy books and began to investigate how I could listen to me. In one of those books I came to a question that left me frozen:
If you could do anything you want with your life, regardless of time, money, age or circumstances, what would you do? What would be your biggest and craziest dream, the one that you dare not tell someone because you are ashamed of how big and crazy that is?
At that moment I was left totally blank. I didn’t know what to answer and I realized that I had not lost only the connection with myself, I had lost something much worse … I had lost my dreams!
It made me very sad and angry at the same time and I decided that I was going to do everything I could to be able to answer that question clearly.
At that time I had a good job as a Physical Therapist, that although I liked a lot and was good professionally, I was not passionate enough, what I wanted was to get up happy in the morning!
One day when I got home from work I saw myself sitting watching a red sunset in May, one of those with many crazy clouds in Santiago de Chile, something reminded me of how much I liked to travel, how I vibrated every time I planned a trip and that they had almost passed 5 years since I had made my last trip alone.
At that time I decided to give up everything and start the plan to go on an indefinite trip. The goal was to travel until I found an answer. This was not clear to me at that time, I just knew that I had to leave.
There began the most intense and beautiful of the trips I have made because I feel that day really began the greatest journey, the journey of a conscious and awaked life.
Everyone knows what they need to do to be happy, to be a better person and to make this world a better place than it was yesterday. What happens is that it terrifies us to assume ourselves, to shout at the top of our lungs our truth and to stand on the world as we are.
We have been told so many times that if you do it you will suffer, that they will cheat you or hurt you and one of our biggest motivations in life is to avoid suffering.
The other motivation is to find pleasure and I opted for the second one.
I went on an indefinite journey through Asia and after 4 months of traveling through Southeast Asia, I arrived in India, which had been my lifelong dream destination. The second I had my feet in Calcutta, I promised myself that I would not leave the country until I had an answer (I had 6 months of visa so I had 6 months to get something).
That trip was the beginning of this adventure that has been NomadicChica, which was born in the middle of summer being shocked by life in India. While I was struggling with the fears and insecurities of whether I would be able to travel through a sometimes intimidating country, I discovered that what I wanted to continue doing was traveling, but I also wanted to help as many people fulfill their dreams and live a happier life.
Today, the greatest advice I can give you is that you don’t have to wait to live such a moment to take responsibility for your life.
Don’t wait until you give up to make the change you already know you have to do.
Your inner being knows exactly what you have to do to be happy, listen to yourself.
Celebrate your life
LOVE YOU
Give thanks every day for all the wonderful opportunities that you have and that are on the way. Although they are small, although they are very simple.
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