TRACK CHANGE: A Woman Learns to Follow Her Own Path.
PHOTOVOICE PROJECT
By Afshan Razvi
“My mama always said you have got to put the past behind you before you can move on” – from the movie Forrest Gump
I took this photo on a family vacation to Switzerland and I look at it often to remind myself that life waits for no one. I find rail tracks fascinating because they are so much like what our lives are, in the sense that you get to choose the route, decide what your journey is going to look like and the destination where you want to be at.
For me, life has always been about moving forward and being resilient in the face of different challenges and I think that is the reason this photo speaks to me.
“ My father’s sudden death was probably the most difficult thing to move forward from; there was a point in my life when I really thought I would never be able to get out of bed and deal with the idiosyncrasies of the world.”
However, with time I learnt how to cope with it…I still hang on very dearly to the loving memory of my father but I now use the anger of losing him to move forward in my life.
It was after his death that I left my hometown of Karachi, Pakistan and moved to Dubai, UAE- at first it felt like an escape but the experience of moving to a different country and starting a new life from scratch made me realize that the human spirit is built to be brave.
Twelve years later, here I am again, starting a new life in Toronto, Canada not because I have to but because I choose to move forward in life and make the best of what the world has to offer. I guess what I am trying to say is that when the rail tracks keep calling out to you, just get on the train.