Ceri Watson lives with her partner and two dachshunds in Essex, United Kingdom. A regular leader in our Essex Sole Circle, she loves walking in nature, travelling, gardening, and is an avid reader.
I’ve always been one of those people who longed to escape the humdrum of daily life.
I grew up in a working-class family in the grey sprawl of a council housing estate in London, where money was tight and our annual holiday was usually to a seaside holiday park somewhere in Britain.
The world felt small, but my imagination stretched far beyond the cement-block housing—into far-off places I had only read about.
I saw myself like Roald Dahl’s Matilda, surrounded by piles of books. If I couldn’t travel, then these wonderful places could travel to me!
At eighteen, I was given the opportunity to further my German language studies and volunteer on a German-speaking kibbutz in Israel. It was my chance for one great adventure—and what an adventure it turned out to be. From there, I travelled through Cairo in Egypt and on to Petra in Jordan, and an unshakable desire to go, to see, to move was ignited.
Just like in Coelho’s The Alchemist, I had to leave home to find something bigger. Travel changed me in ways I never expected. And when I returned, I realised that no matter where I’d been, the real search had always been for myself.
My lust for life soon turned into hard work, hard partying, and a job in the City. But that wasn’t the answer either. The big hamster wheel wasn’t fulfilling my dreams. I was out drinking every night, working through each day with a hangover, my nose pressed against the window, thinking, Is this it?
It wasn’t a good life.
Then, just when I needed it most, I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which he writes a letter to his daughter:
“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or too early to be whoever you want to be.
There’s no time limit—stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same; there are no rules to this thing.
We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it.
And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before.
I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of.
If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”
Those words stuck with me—and changed my future. If nothing changes, nothing changes, right? So I booked a flight to Brazil and spent the next eight months travelling around South America.
I still think of those words every day—perhaps even more so recently, while walking the Camino with my fellow Sole Sisters.
To live a life you’re proud of, and to know it’s never, ever too late to change your path—whether it’s changing careers (I retrained and started a new one at forty-two), leaving an unhappy marriage (ditto), or getting healthier and fitter—whatever it may be, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.
READ MORE > Her Story, Rambler Cafe Blog
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