Just Landed

The Curated coat (similar)
Zara sweater (similar)
Old Navy leggings
H&M boots
Chanel handbag
RayBan sunglasses
Mejuri earrings (c/o) (similar)
Location: Department of the Taoiseach – Dublin, Ireland

We landed in Dublin about two hours before we captured these photos on a post-brunch wander. Our decision to take an early January trip overseas was both somewhat impulsive and somewhat last minute. I think, mostly, in these moments, we both felt lucky, but slightly confounded by the fact that we really were in Dublin. It felt like we’d just decided to visit, just gotten on the plane and there we were, just like that, walking through the city. It was so easy, almost too easy. Anyone could have done it. Why didn’t we do it more often?

Let’s be honest, we were quite tired. But tired and happy. I don’t ever lose sight of the fact that travelling the way we do is a luxury that is not accessible to everyone. Or of the fact that the feeling of having just landed in, if not a new world, then at least an unfamiliar part of it, is one that many never have the chance to experience. What I find harder to wrap my mind around is that it’s a luxury that many people who could access it simply aren’t interested in.

Travel is an incredible teacher. I value every lesson I’ve learned in new places, experiencing cultures and viewpoints that are not my own. The kind of perspective that is gives you is priceless. Who, I wonder, wouldn’t want that? And then, I realise, the question answers itself: people who are comfortable with their current perspective, and who might have something to lose by learning that it isn’t universally shared or simply isn’t true. New places and new ideas challenge us. Not everyone can face a challenge. And beyond that, many people don’t recognise the necessity of continuing to learn, remaining open to challenges, as we navigate our lives. While I will never comprehend anyone who feels this way, there are many people for whom learning ends when they graduate from school.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness,
and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.
Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot
be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth
all one’s lifetime.”
– Mark Twain

When we landed in Dublin, I wasn’t thinking any of these things. I was thinking, mostly, that we were lucky it wasn’t raining and that I couldn’t wait to discover more of the city, which reminded me, initially, of Halifax. It was as the day went on, as we explored book shops, wandered the halls of an art gallery and searched for snacks we can’t get at home in Marks & Spencer, that I thought, this is pure joy. Everyone should get to do this. We should all be so fortunate. And then remembered, much to my dismay, that not everyone appreciates having this kind of luck. That many people wouldn’t actually want to be where I was, because it might force them to examine some of their comfortable prejudices.

We don’t grow when we’re comfortable.

I wouldn’t trade any experience of that just landed feeling for the world. Comfort is often overrated, but discovery never is.

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