To Travel is to Live
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Let me start by saying that I have to give authors credit for the AWESOME title of this post to a friend, a really good friend, a best friend. Although I’m sure she wasn’t the first to start hashtaging all her travel pictures with this phrase, she is the most important to me that has. And, she is actually a part of this story because she was part of my latest trip, the one I’m dedicating this Blog post to.
To travel is to live, definitely. But to travel with friends is beyond simply living, it’s living x 100.
People used to tell me that I would make my closest and bestest friends in School. Well, no plans to refute that idea, some of my bestest friends I made in elementary and high school. But, College for me was crucial in terms of friends, and I was completely blessed to have made such strong bonds with a group of girls I now consider more than just my friends but my family. You never really stop and think about the impact that the people you meet along the way have on your life. I got to College being pretty different than I am now. Yeah I was almost 10 years younger, but I was also very shy and introverted. My biggest fear going to school in Boston was that I wasn’t going to know a single soul. Most of my school friends had decided to stay in Colombia, and the closest HS friend that had come to the US had decided to go to college in Providence, which is technically close, but still it wasn't Boston. At first I have to admit I wasn’t really a social butterfly, but by the end of the most amazing 4 years of my life I had connected with some of the most amazing people I will ever cross paths with; some of which included 1 Colombian, 1 Brazilian, 1 Greek, 1 Venezuelan, and 1 Dominican. It is not easy to find people with whom you get to be 100% real with, but if I have learned something in my 26 years on Earth, is that once you find those people you never let them go. Differences and arguments and stupid fights will come along the way, but when someone really knows you, your GENUINE YOU, fights and arguments become the superglue to an already strong relationship.
More so than a travel post (that one will come soon, because I need to share pics and suggestions on fabulous Rio de Janeiro), this is a thank you post and a love post. A thank you to life and to my friends, a love post to celebrate the member of the group that just got hitched, and a cheer post to our ever growing friendship despite the crazy distance between us all. I mean, we truly embody the meaning of a long distance relationship: 1 lives in Rio, 1 in Barranquilla, 1 in Miami, 1 in London, 1 in Boston and myself in New York. But despite this, we manage to speak almost on the daily and I attribute most of my drained battery to the constant inflow of messages on our WhatsApp group... ok besides my addiction to Instagram.
If it is true that in love opposites attract, well I am sure that the same plays for friendships. I’m not saying that we’re like the most opposite clan, but we all have very strong personalities, very strong ideals and we all are pretty different. But, despite the differences, and now I feel like there is not one single piece of writing of mine that does not include cliches, we have all embraced our differences to become a stronger group. Relationships of any kind are about accepting others, learning from others and growing together and this is exactly what I feel that our little family offers. Now, I mentioned the celebration of love on the post. Well... The latest trip we were on was to celebrate the marriage of one our OG’s. Our brazialian babe got hitched, to a guy whom I've known for a very short time, but whom I already consider family. To them both, I wish not only love but friendship, respect, admiration for one another, and a life full of laughs, wonderful adventures, travel, passion, more babies (can't wait for baby Leo to be an older brother) and much more of that activity that creates the lovely babies... I love you Gabi!
Now to all of you I want to say thank you. Thank you for bearing with me. Thank you for listening whenever I have had a story to tell, even if it was the same story a million times. Thank you for including me in your Insta stories for specific purposes (insert smirky emoji here). Thank you for being my Instragram friends! Thank you for being my friends IRL... in real life. Thank you for being you. Thank you for 9 years of friendship. Thank you for having me be a part of important moments in your life. Thank you for all the laughs, the memories and thank you in advance for the many more memories to come. I love you all dearly & CHEERS to us!!
To say that I’m blessed to have found friends like you, does not even amount to how I feel.
Remember, love yourself always <3
XO,
Maritza
