Courage

Laying there in the clinic, not quite sure what the doctor's diagnosis meant for the near future, a flood of questions raced through my mind. Was I ever going to get better? Was I going to have to give up on my journey and go home? Was I going to let myself and everyone else down? Was I going to be in this much pain for a long time?

The view of the south of France from the train

It was as if the doctor could see the distress written all over my face and he could read the thoughts going through my head. He placed his hand on my shoulder, looked down at me, and said "Courage. Courage." And although this doctor didn't speak much English, that was one French word that I heard loud and clear. 

You see, ending up in a doctor's office in Switzerland wasn't exactly in my plans for my month long backpacking tour through Europe. When I first arrived in Switzerland, I thought that I was just exhausted from all of traveling I had done over the past two days.  

My one night in Nice

From Barcelona, I traveled 14 hours to Nice, France.  Although I really can't say much about Nice because I literally only spent 13 hours there.  I saw most of the south of France from the train. Really, the only thing that made it all worth it was the amazing hostel that I stayed in that night.  I had the room all to myself, an extremely comfortable bed, top notch security, and a private bathroom.

View of the Swiss Alps from Ed's grandparent's

After my one night in Nice, I left the next morning to meet up with Ed at his grandparent's house in Anzere, Switzerland.  I had so many setbacks along the way including being told that I wasn't going to make it to Switzerland that day, begging and crying to a conductor to let me on a train, and one of my trains breaking down in the middle of no where France.  All of this completely by myself.  I had never been so relieved to see another person as I was when I got off the train and saw Ed waiting for me at the Geneva train station.

The myriad of medicines that I had t take

Little did I know, it wasn't just exhaustion and stress that was making me feel not myself.  That night, I started having the worst pain in my stomach that I had ever felt.  I was getting sick at least once every hour during the night, having both sweats and chills, running a fever, and feeling pain literally all over my body. This went on for three days straight.  I was so weak from not being able to keep food in my stomach that I could barely move.

Ed and his grandparents did all that they could to help me and try to nurse me back to health, but it really was just out of our hands.  We were finally able to find a doctor in town that would see me, only to discover that I had a nasty stomach infection.  The lucky part was that it was bacterial so it could be treated by some antibiotics, a strict diet, and a lot of rest.

I didn't last long without having to rest :(

As you can imagine, this really didn't fit into my plans of going to Italy the next day. As much as I tried to convince myself that I was well enough to travel again, I knew deep down that I wasn't and I probably wouldn't be for awhile. So I made the decision to come back to England and allow myself to fully recover, despite how disappointed that I may feel.

So when it all comes down to it, I really have learned from this experience. Sometimes life doesn't go how you planned it. But those are the times that you have to trust that the Lord's plan is better than anything you could have thought of yourself. Where you are right now is exactly where you are supposed to be. It's not about the places you travel or the things you see, it's about the people you have by your side.

So incredibly blessed to have this boy in my life

I am so incredibly blessed that if this was going to happen, that it happened when it did.  The amount of love and kindness that Ed and his family have shown me is simply incredible to me.  And now that I am back in England, my mom is going to fly out here to spend Easter with me.  So although it seemed really bad at the time, I know that there is a positive side to everything. All you need is courage to find it.