Programs Blog

November 13, 2024

Weather: Clear, 10-12 kts easterly

Location: 34˚ 00.4’ S x 176˚ 01.2’ E

*A celebration of going down an unknown path.*

I recently had an impossible choice in my life; I could choose to stay or I could choose to leave. It was unclear what the decision to stay would entail, and it was unclear what leaving would bring.

In the end, I decided to walk away and close the door behind me. Turns out it’s true what they say, when one door closes another one opens. For me the door that opened was SEA. A door that led me to a new adventure at the end of a road in Fiji.

I found myself at the end of a road. I didn’t think the road would end, and I didn’t see it coming, but then again I never saw the beginning of it either. The road was a long hike. I had left the Robert C. Seamans, and walked past touristy businesses, past the post office, past winding steep roads, past water towers, past the airport, past the red dirt, past the fancy AirBnBs, past the churches, past the Vishnu buses, past the paved road, past the muddy road, and all the way to the end of the road. The people who lived at the end of the road told me that if I wanted to continue I could follow the beach to keep going forward. So I continued, past the small village with fields of kids playing, past a preschool, past friendly elders enjoying each other’s company and down to the ocean’s edge. Despite walking the road, I never knew the road’s name or where it began. I could have turned around, but I didn’t. The reward for my perseverance was an unseen view of Fiji. A beach that felt wild, unlike the postcards, and unlike home. There were cool shells on the beach nestled in piles of dead driftwood and other detritus that had washed ashore. I met some Fijians who treated me not as a tourist, but with as much curiosity as I treated them. While walking along the border between Jungle and Ocean I saw a cool rock in the foliage and decided to climb it so that I could see the more wild jungle of Fiji, and to my surprise on top of the giant rock I found two kittens in a den under one of the coolest trees I’ve ever seen. At one point I got hot and decided to go for a swim and found that I was casually swimming among corals. The beach did not go on forever. At some point it ended at a nice Fijian resort, that leads to a road, the road back to my home—the tall ship Robert C. Seamans. In total I walked 7.5 nautical miles and came home sore, but I have no regrets.

It’s a scary thing walking down an unknown path. It’s a scary thing leaving the security of a signed road, but I guarantee you, you’ll see things few others see if you decide to go on and face the unknown.

Cheers to SEA, and cheers going on adventures that won’t even cross the minds of most.

It is not lost on me that the ability to walk down a road that most people won’t get the opportunity to even see was given to me by others.

Thanks Mom for enabling me to go to SEA. Thanks to Kurtis J, Zach N, Andrew W, and my Mom for helping me through an impossible decision. Thanks to my friends back home Max, Josh, Noah, and Aniket, Erik Jan, and Klaus.

Arthur Winslow, St. Olaf College