A dream, a backpack & a one-way ticket to adventure
A flurry of thoughts wash over me as I sit here in the airport lounge waiting to board my flight...the big flight...the flight that I imagine is going to change my life in a big, big way. My thoughts are filled with all that has happened to lead me to where I am right now - a wholesome upbringing, inspiring international holidays, career changes, relationship breakdowns, country road-trips, a growing wisdom and most importantly, the crucial 'aha moment' when I realized I needed something more...
Something new,
something challenging, something more rewarding than my current everyday life - the standard life path generally expected by someone in my situation. You know the one; move out of home, head to university life, land a 9-5, make some decent cash, find a partner, get married, buy a house, have kids... Repeat.
I imagine for most people this is a pretty decent and satisfying way to live life. I can definitely appreciate that. Although, I can't help but wonder that we are programmed to appreciate that. And rather than question what's outside the box we kinda find ourselves trapped in the daily grind and a life we didn't really question until it was too late...
And then, there are the other kinds of 'everyday people.' The ones who are never quite satisfied with the norm and always searching for something more. My inspirational heroes. I'm lucky enough to have found quite a few of these people amongst my nearest and dearest friends. They backpacked throughout their twenties, worked all kinds of jobs so they could live wherever they wanted to and survived on a shoestring because they knew it meant they could continue discovering the wonders of the world. They have inspired me to grow into the independent wanderer I have become today. For a while I think I sat on the fence between the two, not quite sure which way to jump. I would work hard and play hard, take off on whirlwind international holidays but then feel obligated to return to 'real life' (aka. work an office job and pay your taxes). I can now physically feel myself morphing into this energized wanderer - a fiercely independent girl determined to jump the fence and discover the world on my own.
The thought
of living out of a backpack on a few dollars a day for years at a time never really held a great appeal to me. I loved to travel and discover new things but also liked to have a place I could call home. For years, I thought there were only two options that existed when it came to travelling: your short lux holidays where you fling yourself around a country blowing all your hard-earned pennies for a handful of weeks before returning to the daily grind, or option b; the long-term shoestring backpacker road. There didn't seem to be a happy medium where I could travel where and when I wanted to while earning a decent living without the restrictions of a full-time international job. Freedom and flexibility are what I've always yearned for above all else. Ah, I have learnt so much about travelling since then!
So,
after returning from continent-hopping on yet another whirlwind holiday (this time a three-month round-the-world trip), I came down with the worst case of post-holiday blues I had experienced yet. I couldn't shake it. So I started to think about things. Really think about things. Big things. Life goal things. What am I really doing with my life? Working a 40-hour week, climbing the corporate ladder, doing all the ‘successful things’ only to spend all my hard-earned cash on things that don't really matter to me, but make me feel better in the short-term. That new leather jacket, that fancy Friday night dinner, the exorbitant coastal weekend away...I need it. I deserve it. I've worked hard and I need a reward for my stressful week/month/work year. Once I started to think about the things that are really important to me, I realised that most of those things were missing from my life. Freedom. Independence. Adventure. Discovery. Challenges.
How did that happen? It's time to change things up. For real. Bring it on!
““Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, nothin’ don’t mean nothin’ honey, if it ain’t free”
