Step, no. Step, YES!

Okay, to be honest, travelling abroad is out of my plans five years ago. Travelling locally to Bohol, Baguio, Quezon and Cebu are already good enough to brag about. I didn’t come from a rich family, and I always think that I would rather save my money and save for an upcoming college project or buy a new techie phone that can wow my friends and relatives.

I thought that going through passport processing, immigration booths and seeing other countries and spending dollars or other currencies instead of peso, which in turn would require the need to incessantly convert, convert and convert about the prices of things sold in foreign lands. My arithmetical abilities will be put into test, to cause a whole lot of trouble to my brain and my pocket.

But thank God, an opportunity hammered on my door and woke me up saying, "Hello, see the world honey! Just say yes and I'll show you!” A friend-of-a-friend(sounds like friendster?) asked me if I wanted to work in Maldives. Out of gratitude for asking me, I just gave in and said 'yes' so that that friend-of-a-friend of mine will not feel like she just wasted her saliva, SMS's, and a few minutes of her life talking me into it.

I told my mom about it and the first question she asked was "Where is Maldives?” Im sure my mom is not alone to ask that question. Bet you haven’t heard of it five years ago too, unless it was mentioned in your Asian Geography before. Funny when an "all-knowing" neighbor even told my mom confidently, "Oh Mal-di-bes. Ahh I know, it's in the US isn't it?! Oh I know a lot about it." Yeah right.

To cut the story short, I submitted my resume and surprisingly got my flight ticket to Maldives in three weeks! That was a real slap to me that THE opportunity was freakin’ real! And hey, it was my first time to ride an international airplane! Primitive, primitive me.. haha!

As soon as I landed Maldives, I fell in-love with this country composed of just small dots in the globe, right there at the equator, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Whew? How could you find me, soulmate?

LUCKY ME to be part of a multinational hotel chain, I get the benefit of staying in different properties for FREE! So when travelling called me, I just took a ponytail, tied my hair and went away with a flashing smile and a big, excited pair of almond-shaped eyes. Then my love for going to foreign places dawned.

However, don’t get me wrong. We don’t really need to wait for the winning lotto ticket to get ourselves started in travelling. We don’t even need to plan going out of the country just to say that YOU have travelled. Start from exploring our 7,107 islands. Then when opportunity to move a little inch outside your country comes, go ahead and take it! Yes of course you will need some bucks in our pockets but more importantly, we need to have a courageous soul and a brave heart. After all, He is always with us to give us a sign whether it’s going to be a worthwhile trip. As how the great ancient Chinese philosopher puts it:

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

So step, step, and step until we are able to walk. Running, jumping and dancing in between won’t hurt too :)