Choose to Go

choose to go
go where no one has gone before
where no one else will go today
you can go in search of answers
only to find more questions
you might discover something unfamiliar
half way around the world
or uncover something unexpected
far closer to home
sometimes you might need to look back
to see how you got here
and where you might be headed
and just when you think your journey's reached an end
you'd be surprised to find it's only just beginning
but you'll keep going
because it's your journey
wherever it goes

I'm writing this from the Palais des Nations, the seat of the United Nations Office in Geneva. I saw the CNN video above for the first time this morning at the breakfast room of a ladies' residence I just moved to a few days ago. It's my first time to stay in a ladies' residence. So far, it has given me impressions of how nuns or spinsters live. It's the fourth place I've stayed at in this global village where the housing situation here deserves an entirely different post altogether.

But this video stuck a chord and merit a post simply because I haven't watched cable TV (in whatever language) in almost six months - not since our hotel room in Frankfurt after a 2-week holiday around Europe in March. I didn't realize I haven't watched TV that long until breakfast today. In this modern age, I was detached from cable consumerism. I was occupied with other activities, other sources of information. It's amazing that it's possible to have a life without TV.

Yet the more important part wasn't just the video per se and the different places that CNN reporters have been to but also the voice over and the title - Choose To Go. I chose to go, to leave Manila. To leave those shoddy living arrangements in flats here. To go to Bochum, Cape Town, and Geneva. But I'm leaving again soon not knowing whether home will be a pitstop or not.

Yesterday, I received a request to write about my stay here in 800-1500 words for a "life after graduate school" article. I gladly accepted the task but the instrospection required to write the draft will certainly be inspired by the text above. Plenty of answered questions but indeed, I may be surprised to find out, "it's only just beginning."