The satisfaction of achieving a goal

I believe everyone has something they are looking to achieve. Whether it be a career, getting married, starting a family, losing weight or making amends, we all have a goal within ourselves that we would at some point in our lives, like to meet.

When I was 16 years old, I picked my goal, and that was to travel to Africa and see the Wildebeest migration. Africa was a place I had fallen in love with on a movie screen, and the thought of travelling there was something I said I would do before I was 30.

Only a year behind my goal, I spent two weeks travelling Kenya and Tanzania on safari. It was absolutely fantastic!

Many people, friends, family, my travel agent, told me that this would be a trip of a lifetime. They said it would be life changing and bigger than I could have ever imagined.

Boy, were they right.

I was witness to animals I had seen in National Geographic (and The Lion King). I became engrossed in their everyday activities, taking in the wonder of a far away land. I saw landscapes of endless plains, trees and vegetation I had never heard of or seen before, beautifully brightly coloured birds, and I met some amazing people that call that continent home.

Driving from game park to game park, all the children we passed waved their hands frantically at us, sometimes giving the thumbs up. I was amazed that while travelling through these towns, some poor and dilapidated, there were many, many schools, catering to the primary and high school grades.

My driver informed me that education is top priority for the children.

I was also amazed that the main form of travel for these villagers was the bicycle. While we would be the only car on the main road for many kilometres, we would pass a great number of Africans on bikes. They would be carrying bags of water, groceries, or bundles of wood on their main mode of transportation. For every fifty bicycles we passed, we passed at least two bicycle repair shops.

And, as seen in many photos, I watched in amazement the women (and girls) walk endlessly with plates of fruit or jugs of water on their heads, not spilling a drop.

The tourism these African countries experience from people like me is what helps keep the game parks going, the economy alive, with many, many people employed.

An experience I will never forget absolutely. A trip of a lifetime no doubt about it.

I have realized a dream, one I have held for half of my life, and the satisfaction of achieving it is unbelievable to me.

It's a great feeling to accomplish a goal you set for yourself and achieve yourself.

Africa. I went. I saw. I definitely conquered. (and I still can't believe it!)