True Blue Aussie Pride

A lot of people have told me over the years that when you travel, you learn much  more about where you're from than the places that you're travelling to.

That while you do go overseas to explore new and exciting
places, to meet new people with lives you couldn't even have imagined, you come home with a better understanding and a much stronger appreciation of your own country.

I can't speak for everyone, but for me especially, I had no idea just how lucky I was to be Australian born and raised. I very quickly learnt on my first big trip when I was 18 that I took so much for granted.

Now, I'm not talking about people in third world countries who don't have access to food and clean water. That's awful, but was not unknown to me before I started travelling.

I'm talking more about people who perhaps don't have access to beautiful beaches on their doorstep, who don't get to grow up in a country where they have the opportunities to study whatever they want, under the government dollar. And most heartbreaking in my eyes, but people who don't have the opportunity and the culture to travel as much as we do!

Now of course, that isn't to say that there Australia is perfect. There are definitely things around the world that I have seen and learnt that we could really learn from. Countries that run and do things a little bit better than we do, and I don't just mean the Spanish siesta. Although, who would turn down the chance to nap for 2 hours in the middle of every day?!

However, there is one thing that I'm experiencing this time around that I haven't before. Firstly, that it is incredibly hard to be away from home for this long. But in a strange way. I'm homesick, but not for my friends and family per se, but more from my actual country.
I miss being in Australia and just generally being where I belong. But that's a part of travelling, at the end of the day, as I said earlier, being in Canada truly makes me appreciate where I come from and where home is.

But it's not just that, the thing that I'm realising this time around, the more people that I meet, travellers and locals, is that not everyone is as passionate about their country as I am. Not everyone believes that their country is the best in the world and certainly not everyone gets homesick the way that I do.

It breaks my heart to hear people, from first world countries, say that they dislike being in their home. That they want to get away and especially people that happily will give up their citizenship in their own country to become a citizen of another.
And these aren't people that come from war torn countries, these aren't people who have escaped from awful places where they are constantly in danger. These are people who have grown up in countries no more of worse off than I did.
People from England, from America, from New Zealand and even some other Australians.

That is something that I just can't fathom.

It's so intriguing to me, as someone who tears up when people start to talk to me about how great my country is, that not everyone feels the same. And at the same time, it breaks my heart.

Whilst saying all of this, as hard as it is to be missing my country as much as I am, I wouldn't have it any other way. Because, at the end of the day, I might not know where I'm going, but I damn straight know where I'm from!

I would also totally love to know your opinions on this stuff, how many people feel the same or differently around this topic, about your country! Drop me a message!

Email: taylorbekkers2@gmail.com

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