Ancient Egypt may have been the first place I travelled without ever leaving a classroom.

As a kid in primary school, I remember learning about pharaohs, pyramids and a civilisation so extraordinary it hardly seemed real. Egypt belonged to another world—another planet, almost. Certainly not somewhere I imagined my own little life would one day take me.

Before my brother Lee passed away, he left me with four simple words:

Don’t waste a day.

Removed from that moment, they may sound like a familiar sentiment. But Lee knew me in ways I had not yet learnt to know myself, and the gravity of those words changed the course of my life. They became a quiet compass—an invitation to remain curious, take the unlikely road and occasionally step into worlds that once seemed impossible.