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Walking with a Stranger
Author: Tanner Orion
Published: May 14th, 2002
Views: 1665
I once walked with a stranger; the walk was about a year long if I remember correctly. It was fun; I mean he's now my best friend. We went through hell together, got robbed a couple times and beat up, surfed in Floripa `till the sun went down, partied like crazy, met an array of people from different backgrounds, nationalities, and religions, and managed to learn Portuguese together. It was a long walk at times, but we ended up getting to where we needed to go. It was relaxing at times too, lounging by the pool each day in a nice little gringo speedo. Stressful! um yeah, we got stressed out a lot. But most of all it was the most memorable walk of my life. This guy I walked with was like no one else I had ever encountered; his true self started to shine through all the roughage. I never knew people could adapt and grow like this during such a journey.

The walk seemed to last forever, and then it was all of sudden over. The end is so far away at the beginning of your journey, but when the end comes, you are wondering where the time went. It's hard at times, walking with this stranger. But along the way I grew closer and closer to him as we identified our goals and boundaries together. We spent a lot of time sitting around on our walk; it was tiring. Many times we wanted to give and turn around to go home, but there was something burning inside of us that wouldn't let us quit. A subtle desire that took form and grew throughout our walk that propelled us through to the finish line.

It was weird, we were the Stranger everywhere we went, sometimes we didn't even speak the native's language, but they were so nice and accepting to our occasionally unorthodox ways. We discovered that the true meaning of culture lies deep below the superficial surface, which was so often assigned to our faces. We dove into their culture and open ours up inside. It was amazing. What I wouldn't give to go on this walk again.

The best part of this walk is that I feel like I now know who the stranger was that I was walking with. Stripped of every describable element necessary for survival, the stranger emerged. And now he stands tall, waiting for the next walk.

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