This morning I helped build a small ladder for a one-winged owl. This afternoon I’m feeding baboons, meerkats, vervet monkeys and mongeese with the rest of the volunteer team at the N/a’ankuse Wildlife Sanctuary. Today I am in Namibia.
My Dad loves reading action/adventure books and I used to rummage through his collection to find something intriguing, then curl up on our green chair and get lost. One book tickled my mind and heart – it was about diamonds and the Skeleton Coast, Namibia (or Western South Africa back then). I thought to myself, ” Someday I’ll go there.”
15 years ago I bought a travel book to Namibia, and read more about my precious Skeleton Coast. But there wasn’t time for such a trip between a career, husband, and family holidays taking up many of my cherished vacation days. So I thought to myself, “Someday…”.
That travel book traveled with me through several moves, a divorce, and 2 years in a storage unit as I moved cross-country and worked to figure myself out.
I attended an MEA workshop via Zoom and focused on understanding my Endings (many!), my messy, Messy Middles (seemingly endless), and all the opportunities for Beginnings.
When I finally unpacked my Namibia book in 2021 I put it in a place of prominence on my bookshelf. I again thought, “Someday”.
And realized Someday was staring at me.
In early 2023 I scrolled into an FB ad for a volunteering trip to a Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia. I instantly realized my Someday had arrived, I simply (hah!) needed the courage to embrace it.
Its fascinating how my life path allowed the Namibia dream to expand and encompass new passions as they evolved – in particular, volunteering in Africa. And I’d never worked with wildlife before, but a few years ago I started randomly reading memoirs by people who worked with animals in South America and Africa.
The universe paid attention through all those decades and delivered, yet it was up to me to have the vision, understanding and acceptance to see that Today was my Someday.
Tomorrow I will walk with cheetahs in the morning and work with the anti-poaching K-9 unit in the afternoon. It’sIts definitely not always comfortable and I come up against various fears daily, but I am a stronger person everyday because of Today. Midlife can be an amazing opportunity for Someday dreams to come true, and I hope you too, in the not too distant future, find a wispy memory of a Someday and actualize it into a Today.
-Betsy
Betsy Benoit has spent the last three years actualizing her Somedays, from fly fishing to travel destinations to woodturning and blacksmithing (which didn’t end well, but she gave it a go!). Now she’s working on the Alumni World Travel Experience (MEA) and excited to help actuate other people’s Somedays.