Are we an inclusive community? The study of Wander across the years.

While jumping dunes and curving roads, we have made friends in places least expected. We experienced moments, discovered lands and lived to tell the story. 

As we grow in passion and number, our main focus is to create thoughtful impact on the community through our Wanderers. To listen to their journeys requires a certain degree of understanding and communal efforts to create a cohesive belonging in a land that has seen diversity like no place on earth. But in a rapidly developing country, an overwhelming number of new trends that make the more recent ones obsolete - what is authentic to our belonging? What do we harness and protect as we ride the wave of modernism and how do we do it? 

We are not necessarily trend setters - we are just living the truth of who we have always been. By still engaging in activities that our elders enjoyed is not a statement of us remaining in the past rather revolutionizing a timeless activity into a modern face-lift.

Community is not dead. Naturally, as we continue developing into a metropolitan hub we feel a disconnect from (human nature) and find it much easier to say “we no longer connect”. In reality, this is the most absurd illusion you can live in. With social platforms we have worn our hearts on our sleeves - expressing emotion and interests to the world. Listen to everyone’s story, respect everyone’s mission.

Innate Connectedness. We are far from being strangers. In fact, we are the closest we have ever been because of the little windows in our pocket. The world is closer than we thought, especially when someone in Canada wants a Wander sticker (hey Daniel!). You have more things in common with a stranger as you do with someone that has shared your life. Connectedness is not measured by quantifiable interactions rather emotional connectedness.

Throughout the years of running through this community of beautiful beautiful people, we have come across experiences that cannot be put into words. The synergy of a few people that in turn becomes a mission to cross the deserts of the UAE, Wanderers that carry the emblem on their sleeves, people we have never met creating stories we have never seen, an undying philosophy of travel, adventure and seeking the unsought. But most of all, the soul. The amount of authenticity we have experienced, the raw reality you allow us to exist in, is what we are celebrating today and everyday. Thank you for making Wander real.

Nature. Life.

"Life feels like a blind path. That moment you are stopped before a dune larger than any you've ever driven before, you watch as the grains of sand swiftly move in the direction of the wind almost characterizing it. Taking a deep breath, securing the already fastened seat belt, turning your radio off and feeling your foot slowly press down on the gas and suddenly you're moved with that momentum and you see the once swiftly moving sand is now gushing beneath your rubber, the vessel you're sat in is raging, your heart is racing and the world around you is chaotic. You take the dune for what it's worth at full capacity and for the millisecond that feels like a decade where you're in mid air awaiting the sound of breakage you peak through your squinting eyes only to find you made it to the other side. This is life"

This is my interpretation of winging it, with an underpinning notion of understanding life just a little bit. This is something nature has taught me, and I don't think anything else is more capable of teaching me this lesson. When we go out into nature we are exposing ourselves to a probability of danger, an element of the unknown and a high chance of something new to burst our bubble of comfort. As we all know, society has built compartments of predictability for us to live in, homes we are familiar with and people with the same behavior. "Don't speak to strangers" "Don't ask certain questions" "Just mind your own business".

Under what circumstance is this the right way to move forward? Why is obliviousness in thought a way of life?

We have walked the earth on egg shells, we have always thought most of our impulsive reactions are wrong and disrespectful. We have always journeyed on a path of individualism completely disregarding the natural collectivist within us. Always careful, always thinking we have a say in what the future holds for us. The only say we have is in how willing we are to ride the wave.

Ride the wave, hold on and push through and wait to see what happens on the otherside - always knowing you gave it your all. Whats in the rucksack? A dash of passion, a handful of adrenaline and a whole lot of curiosity.

What I'm getting at is, the way a human naturally behaves in nature is something that has become foreign to us. A behavior we regard as odd. Tell me this, when you're dug deep in the sand and seeking help, are you going to shy away from asking for help? or are you going to wave down the next car that drives by?

Take the stuck situation and apply it to self-discovery and daily concrete jungle struggles. If you are stagnant in life, in dire need of a change but think twice about waving down the next person to seek help how are we going to grow as a society? How are we going to learn? How are we going to find ourselves within others?

Channel your inner impulsive reaction to the world around you. Just like we allow nature to be nature, allow yourself to be yourself and watch where you land - no breakage, no damage but plenty of progression.