The signing of an apartment lease has lead to a volcanic eruption of emotions, some of them relife as I managed to find a place to live in this city of dodgy basement suits, and flakey landlords, with an IQ and hygine standards comparable to Tony Abbotts scrotum (just to clarify, i haven't seen Tony Abbotts' scrotum nor do I have any desire too but i'm sure its as slimy as his face).
The comfort that comes from having a flat to call my own now, is the catalyst in the lava flow of emotions spewing within my body. With this new comfort it means that my mind wanders, as I stroll through the streets of this city i've grown familiar with over the course of my undergraduate career. My time here is where my identity as a transient child of the world solidified, and I've found solace in crossing pathways (and pints) with other transient children of the world.
This has provided comfort over the years and the other transient children in this city have become a nuclear family of sorts. One of the cons of a being a transient child of the world is that, because of your lifestyle and lack of roots, and so do your friends it means that there is a potential to comeback to find other transients being transient in other parts of the world. Resulting in a bizzare realisation upon return that half the people in your phone arn't there any more.
As the lava continues to flow through your veins, and you meander the streets, knowing the best eats and treats on every corner, seeing the same faces, in the same places, the same begger on hastings tripping balls a sense of bewilderment fills you. This is because, in all this time nothings changed, sure theres contruction thats finally finished on Broadway but, the world has just spun madly on without my presence. Resulting in an inner thought of, "how has nothing changed in this time?", and the longer your away the more shocked at how nothing has changed. Reminding you of the reasons why you left this place in the first place at a even more pronounced volume than before your departure.
It's this feeling that reminds you of why you went on your transient way in the first place, because you wanted out of this life, and away from it all, sure its good to be back, and see all the people you missed and eat at all your favorite places and do all your favorite things. But the problem with this is, as a transient child of the world, it doesn't matter where you go or who your with all the people ( and gastronomic delights) you love most will never been in the same place at once.
Potentially the hardest part of being a transient child of the world is that , you leave your heart in lots of places with lots of people. In addition the more you people you meet from different countries and the more places you go to, the more fragmented your heart becomes. For example, someone whose from a small country town in central British Columbia, who is born, raised and dies there, never moves and goes on holiday to another part of BC and has always had the same group of friends, will always have their heart in central BC.
Take this and compare it to someone whose got parents and family from different countries, whose moved around, and has many international friends in different places and who keep going to different places. There hearts will always be in more than one place, making it fragmented as they may have a great fondness for the town where they spent there childhood, a fondness from friends who've invited them to share cultural experiences with them, the vegetable samosas on the north west coast of Malaysia...etc the list goes on.
Ultimately, having a fragmented heart is because of something called, Ubuntu. Ubuntu, is a Southern African philosophy which means, translated into English means, " I am because of you". In other words we are who we are because of the interactions we have with wildlife, individuals, cultures, experiences that we have and share with others.
Its because of Ubuntu, that Transient Children of the World, to a point feel more, good and bad. There lives are more complex and "where are you from?", " or where's home?", results in an automated response in the back of your head along the lines of, "FUCKSAKE! not this again"....which sometimes slips out of your mouth depending on how many pints of larger you've had that night....may or may not be talking from personal experience at all......
To conclude, Transient children of the world, feel a lot, a lot of good but we also feel vulnerability, confusion and utter frustration at times with society, and life as our hearts continue to fragment like a pie fresh out of the oven. With every interaction and a new piece is carved, and thus with the moving out of every apartment and signing the lease of a new one. The transient child of the worlds emotions, start a new cycle.
