Two Worlds Apart and Finding Purpose.
Murmurings
Purpose is something we discover once we start gaining some maturity in life. It is not surprising some people spend almost their entire lifetime trying to find their purpose in life and that underpins the importance of each of us finding our purpose early enough.
Jose was born and raised in a remote part of Kenya. He first heard of the word purpose when he was in a local secondary school. He remembers that day when the motivational speaker, a former alumnus of the school, who had fairly advanced in life and was now driving a 1976 Peugeot 405 came to give a talk about success.
To fire up the spirit of the boys, he alluded that he had a car courtesy of finding purpose in life. Having a car in the locality was such a big achievement. Everybody looked forward to owning a car someday and Jose wasn’t exempt.
Only now he discovered that even if he ‘played’ Stalin, he couldn’t buy out purpose to have a car. He had to find this purpose. And in every stage of his life since then, Jose kept the thing called purpose in front of him.
Interestingly, having gone through high school and university, Jose was yet to find his purpose. It seemed to erode him when he was on the verge of finding it.
But as he sat on the airplane and the city in the sun, Nairobi, seemed distant with each mile the plane moved, Jose started thinking seriously about his purpose once again. He had fear and joy in equal measure wondering whether he was leaving his purpose back in his home country or right ahead it lay in wait.
After a 15-hour flight with a one-hour stop midway, Jose’s flight landed at Heathrow airport, Europe’s busiest airport. As the plane came to a stop, everything felt different. From his seat, Jose could see the sun briskly shining albeit in contrast to the dress code of the people he looked at.
He walked out into the entry lobby, cleared with the immigration team at the arrivals section, and proceeded outside the airport for a peek into London as he tried to find his way around the airport and into central London.
To his surprise, the temperatures outside the airport were very low. Yes, the sun was up and shining beautifully, but it was very cold as though it was raining. This was the first time Jose experienced the definition of what it means to talk of cold.
His first lesson was learned through experience. Whenever he would go traveling, he would be prepared. This was not a random lesson, it turned out to be a life lesson that he would be armed with for as long as he would live. Always stay prepared.
After a few minutes outside the airport and after consulting his map, Jose flagged a black sleek taxi. He had tried searching for the taxi apps and realized he didn’t have data because his service provider had changed and with it came roaming charges.
It took quick thinking before he logged in to the airport Wi-Fi and was able to order a taxi. Later he could learn that there was a subway that would have taken him to a major train station from which he would catch his train to somewhere close to his school at half the cost of the taxi he had used.
This second lesson had been learned through experience as well, but a painful one. Due diligence is important for anyone moving to a different country. Check out the cost beforehand and have maps even in printed form to help you maneuver a new environment.
Driving through the streets of London, Jose marveled at the beauty of this place. In contrast to his expectation of finding the public service vehicles raging through the city as he was used back to his home country, it was aptly different.
Things seemed to be flowing seamlessly in this place. People moved as though they perfectly knew their purpose in life. Jose admired this observation he was seeing on his first day in the United Kingdom and as he ‘examined’ these people with purpose go about their business, he envisioned finding his purpose too and learning in this new ocean of identity identification.
The taxi moved through the city in an unimaginable flow while observing all the street lights and people waiting for the lights to change before crossing and Jose had to often pinch himself to bring himself to this new reality he will be expected to fit in.
As a fact, these were two worlds apart but one which allowed him to explore and find his true purpose. In his village, people believed that true purpose was found if one traveled widely especially overseas. And here he was, wrongly as it sounded, to find his purpose.
The story continues next week….
