Dream with me, will you

Time really is everything.

Our minds carry with it a bag of memories. We have the pleasure of pulling them out any time we want and wander back to a time. The very idea of being able to physically travel back in time and experience life from the very first second is a dream and fantasy many people have had. And I am no exception to daydreaming about unordinary things. Such fantasies reflect a deeper yearning for doing something idealistic, but which is completely out of reach.

I would love to bounce around throughout history and see what life was really like experiencing tremendous social, artistic, and cultural dynamics. During my voyage back in time, I would spend my days getting acquainted with those monumental people who have had a major impact in the construction of history. In fact, since I’m dreaming, I would like to write my name in the history of the humankind. Every man wants to write his name in history. Although a small portion of them have that privilege. As a person who often travels too far into her own head and wishes to stay there my theory is simple: the endless imaginary possibilities offered by a world you have not experienced and a life you have not lived are no match for those same confining days of your own past.

I believe we would be different people if we had lived in another time. How could we ever be unhappy if we found ourselves standing amongst the greatest icons who have held their fists high shouting and screaming for what they hoped would be a better tomorrow to those who, today, take on stress by choosing the perfect filter for an Instagram post… of food!

I let myself imagine walking down unfamiliar avenues, alongside the people who aren’t products of the digital age. Nelson Mandela takes preference over all others. You see, Nelson and I share common ground, literally. We’re South African, and this makes me prouder than proud. Nelson Mandela was a fighter. Instead of bowing down to an unjust system of government, he became a lifelong warrior in the battle to free South Africa. But even while in prison, Mr. Mandela continued to be a beacon of hope for his people, who carried on the struggle against Apartheid in his absence. Mandela, a man who’s spirit cannot be crushed, a man of great personal honor, strength, and integrity was always fighting for something greater than himself and that was the freedom of an entire nation. It is painful to imagine that this man, who radiated so much love, who espoused so many truths, could have spent so much of his life in prison. Nelson Mandela has always inspired me to think beyond myself, to think of people in the wider world as part of a common humanity.

I was born a year before the apartheid era ended, so I didn’t have the chance to live through the struggle or witness the great change. Many would say it’s a good thing and that I’m lucky but the true desire to go back and help construct history stems from wanting to meet the greatest heroes before they saved the day.

I’d make a trip further back in time to a struggle less merciful and take a seat next to Anne Frank, the most famous victim of the German holocaust. Anne spent two years of her life living in an attic with two other families. Life became difficult for the Franks and other Jews of Holland. But of all the unfortunate events that occurred in those two years the one good and greatest thing was: the diary. For her thirteenth birthday, Anne was given an autograph book which she used as a diary. It was her best friend. They stayed in the secret annex for two years, unfound. Anne wrote about their hellish ordeal, suffering from boredom, hunger and the ever present fear of discovery and death. Anne’s dream of becoming a famous writer came true, eventually, however not in the way she imagined.

If I was stuck in that attic with Anne and the gang, I would have been mentioned on every few pages depending on her opinion of me. When I read the book Anne Frank: Diary of A Young Girl, the desire to travel back to the past grew even more. It would have been a great privilege to share a space and time with a young girl whose state of mind was filled with profound truths, whose soul desperately wanted peace for everyone and whose heart yearned for simple pleasures. Anne was just a young growing girl who was not given any room for growth and yet she experienced more than most of us ever will.

Going into the future seems strange because there’s too much uncertainty. The desire to travel back, however, is a want of life re-lived with the knowledge of experience and imagined foresight. More than anything, this desire is nothing but a romance with my fantasy, and always will be.