THE Chinese proverb says, “The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.” Speaking from my lived experiences over the past two weeks, I can say without a degree of uncertainty that the most difficult or nerve-wracking part of any new endeavour is finding the courage to just get the ball rolling.

Tomorrow, like many of you in my target audience, I’ll be starting back my formal academic pursuits. On my part, I’ll be doing so after a year of working exclusively and more importantly, I’ll be pursuing tertiary education away from home.

The journey to get to this point has been (and continues to be) long and trying. I do have a great deal of hesitancy and uncertainty about my future, but at least- as the Chinese have said- I’ve made the single step of starting.

Being away from home is an anxiety-inducing experience. I’ve been in Trinidad for just over two weeks and by now, as you can imagine, I’m longing for the comfort of my bed, home-cooked meals and the comfort of my circle. During the time I’ve been here, however, I’ve also had the opportunity to repudiate this anxiety and step outside of my comfort zone, even though I was not initially enthused about this.

The initial 10 days of being on my own, for the most part, during CARIFESTA, enabled me to find a mental fortitude I didn’t believe I possessed. I never would have imagined that at 19 years old, I would able to navigate my way through the myriad of cultural activities throughout the country as a Journalist and Photographer, while taking care of myself.

One of the defining experiences for me so far was at the Oui Papa Yo fashion show during CARIFESTA XIV. This was the highlight fashion event for the festival and it was a big deal. I stepped into the packed room at the Hyatt Regency, looked around and before heading to the walkway to position myself to take photographs, I told a dear friend and member of the Guyanese contingent that I didn’t think I was equipped enough to cover this event. The thoughts running through my head were that I only had an entry-level DSLR camera, I did not have an external flash and I was probably way out of my league being the ‘youngin’ among these professional photographers from across the region.

I’ll be the first to admit that I made myself small; that was all me. At the same time, however, I’ll highlight that I found the courage within myself and I took a step forward, deciding that I’ll give it my best shot. As photographers here, we had to contend with terrible lighting control (an overwhelming backlight and an annoying spotlight that shone on half of the models’ bodies). While quite a few of the photographers left to take up positions elsewhere, I stayed there because I found a creative way of using the lighting to my advantage- based on an earlier experience during CARIFESTA.

I don’t say this to hype myself (I am cognizant that my photographs may not be the best of the lot), but to emphasise the need to just take the first step. If there’s one thing I would encourage all of us to do as we travel along our individual journeys, it would be that we find it within ourselves to start.

While we’re starting these journeys as well, I think it is important to remember that we don’t exist in vacuums. In all the experiences I have had so far, it would be remiss of me if I didn’t acknowledge the kindness shown to me by so many people. I could not take a single step forward if it were not for all of the persons who continue to guide me or keep me in their thoughts and prayers.

My Chinese proverb might be a banal one, but banal as it may be, I hold firm to it. And in all that I’ve said, I hope the experience continues to show me the merit of my beliefs instead of causing me to reevaluate these sentiments as sheer conjecture. Here’s to more steps forward for all of us- whether academically, professionally or otherwise.