What Is Traveling, You May Ask?

During those traveling moments is when I came to realized that when I take a day or two days out of the city is when I get to think, reflect, relaxed and most importantly, it was when I would find me.

Author: Zwena Bachoo

What is traveling, you may ask?

Coming from a background family where we have people from different countries and cultures, one of the many things my family enjoyed doing was traveling from one country to another just to do barbecues and gather in one country to another.

I guess it was the only way we could all meet and have a family weekend. At that time, my family and I lived in D.R Congo. But after Leaving D.R. Congo to come live in Rwanda, I knew something was missing in my life and I never stopped searching for it.

Fast forward to when I finished my high school, I wanted to study tourism for my bachelor degree. So for the holidays, I traveled to Bujumbura (back then it was still the capital of Burundi).

On a random day, I received a WhatsApp message from my older brother telling me that there was a university that just opened and it was offering diploma in journalism.

He suggested I study journalism to take upon our grand father’s legacy (but this a story for another day) and he said that can always combine it with traveling, without hesitation I accepted.

Five years later after finishing my diploma in journalism and bachelor degree in Mass media, I started producing a travel show called “Out And About Rwanda” that was airing on Rwanda National TV.

During those years of studying and trying to push for my show, life wasn’t going as I was planning and I fell into depression. I wanted to succeed so bad that I never realized that I was actually falling into my own darkness.

Now, here is a thing, sometimes we work for something so much that when things are not going as planned, we tend to accept failure and to me I thought that I was investing my every strength and money into something that wasn’t going anywhere.

Years later after pushing for my show, it was finally accepted, I started producing and presenting the show. I mean come on MY OWN SHOW. It was so surreal to me.

My show was a tourism show and I would travel across Rwanda to showcase things to do, where to go, the history as well as the culture. It was then when I realized that the one thing that was missing in my life was traveling.

During those traveling moments is when I came to realized that when I take a day or two days out of the city is when I get to think, reflect, relaxed and most importantly, it was when I would find me.

With Every trip I would take, I would get to learn about life, myself, my country and get to meet new people. They say “you lose sight of things and when you travel everything balances out”,  I was able to pick myself back up from all my depressions, worries, sadness, fears all because of traveling.

Now my therapy has become traveling, a day out of the city has become my medication.