I grew up on an island.
The UK.
I now live on another.
New Zealand.
And this week, I have been visiting a third, the island city-state of Singapore.
But this one is different.
It is connected by a causeway.
And so today, I hopped across the border to Johor Bahru in Malaysia. For no other particular reason than because I could.
The experience was, at first, underwhelming. And then, ultimately, interesting.
It was just people going about their daily lives. The frustrations, the boring minutiae, the rhythms of a normal day. I found a chance-discovered cafe called Antipodean Gold that served a mean flat white and banana bread, and I watched the world go by.
And it made me think about the borders we live with.
There is something I value deeply in the proximity and physical exposure to other nations. Yes, New Zealand is increasingly multicultural, as are the UK and Singapore. But there is a different texture to being able to simply cross a line on a map and experience something else.
It’s a feeling I miss.
It also made me think about the other borders in my life.
Leaving psychology behind and moving towards a creator life—be it writing or video—was another kind of border crossing.
A deliberate one.
I don’t necessarily want to go back across that border. But I will always have that experience with me. It is a country I carry within, shaping everything I see and everything I say.
And what about you?
What borders have you crossed lately?
Or is there one you want to, but you’re still waiting on the visa?
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