Like a Pencil ⋆ EvaMtalii

People usually refer to pencils for analogy when they want to stress the temporarity of stuff or life in general.

Depending on the quality, pencils need to be sharpened every so often.

And watching a pencil being sharpened, feels like a painful process.

Such is life.

Including that of a travel lifestyle blogger of color.

It’s usually not all chocolates and perfumes. Between being hand-picked among a throng of non-coloured travellers at airports for “extra” security checks to being looked like suspiciously and inquisitively like you just landed from Pluto or Mars…

All these not so pleasant experiences make us sharper.

I remember getting really upset during my first first times as a solo traveller. These days though, it doesn’t bother me at all. I figured the art of cooperation and arriving a little earlier than usual just in case I need to undergo “extra security check.” As for the stares, my work around has been always being at my best when I travel and smiling a whole lot.

Cheesy I know.

Which brings me to my next point.

The outer wooden part of a pencil is useless without the inner lead part.

No matter how lovely the outside of a pencil may be, if the lead inside isn’t as great, it is a useless pencil. Because that is the part that enables the pencil to fulfill its function. That apparently ugly black lead is what gives meaning to the pencil.

This reminds me of the danger of judging yourself or others based on outside features such as gender, hair color, skin color, height, waistline, and whatever else, that you or they had absolutely no control over.

The emphasis should be on what’s on the inside.

Like pencils, the most important part of you and I is not so much on the external, but what is on the inside. These are the things that will enable us to live a fulfilled life.

Our core.

Our value.

From which everything else springs forth.

That most pencils have an eraser attached at the end (at least those that were sold in the 20^th century when I was in primary school) remind us that the mistakes we make do not define us. What’s important is that we rise after falling or making mistakes.

For additional tips to on how to become more comfortable with failure and how best to navigate these unpleasant circumstances as they arise, get Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. She talks about what goes on inside us when we fail, and how that—not talent or luck—is what makes all the difference.

My most cherished analogy of the pencil is its purpose.

Writing.

Which is what leaves a mark.

It don’t matter how sharp a pencil is if it’s not being used to write or draw or give an illustration as I’m currently doing. It’s only then that a sharpened pencil adds value.

Hallo dear reader, we are all instruments. Just like a pencil.

But it’s all about the legacy we leave behind.

As you move through this life and this world, you change things slightly. You leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks — on your body or on your heart — are beautiful.

– Anthony Bourdain – RIP Boo

I for one like to travel far and near for among other reasons, to leave a mark. To be part of the global narrative on what it is like to be female, to be Kenyan, to be a woman of color travel lifestyle blogger, to be black and proud, to be a daughter, to be a wife, to be a mother, to be sister, to be a mentor, to be a solo traveler, to be… (fill in the blanks) whatever hat you wear or you’d like to wear.

You’ve probably read of the text conversation I once had with a friend some time back.