How did this start?!
My notice handed in, flights booked and visa acquired... Suddenly the whole reality of my adventure is apparent; I'm actually going ahead with it! 7th March 2013, New Zealand then Australia, here I come!
I've always contemplated just dropping everything and going on an adventure where my future isn't dictated by financial ties and an employment work pattern. I've aspired to living my life by learning from unusual experiences, and having interesting insights to tell and inspire others with.
However in recent years I had gotten into what I call the "comfort zone" where I had increasingly become happy with considering my self an underachiever, and feeling sorry for myself due to position I was in. Ten years had flown by and I had started to imagine where I was going to go in the next 10... They were looking pretty bleak and uninspiring!! I was drifting along doing an average job, earning a fairly basic wage, living a very modest existence.
Then just over a year ago one of my best friends Adam sowed the thought of just leaving and going travelling. After all we were 26, living with our parents, had just walked to an empty pub and mutually agreed there had to be somewhere better for us to be! Naturally after consuming several pints of Guinness that evening, and talking about it for a good few hours we shook hands and vowed that we were going to go travelling and make up for the numerous evenings spent saying "bloody hell... Why are we here tonight?!"
After crawling out of bed late morning the next day, I thought about what we had agreed on. Yes the thought was exciting, but could we actually do it? I mean after all, last night we had only been discussing an unrealistic fantasy while half pissed right? Perhaps I should have had a gap year before University like a lot of others... that chance passed along time ago.
Over the coming weeks that thought of travelling was still calling to my scene of adventure. I quietly started looking at where I'd like to go and what I'd like to achieve, still fairly determined to act upon what I had said that night. I was still questioning though... do I have enough money, is this the right time to do it, what about work?
Then one evening while sat talking to my mother around the kitchen table discussing work and life in general I dropped into conversation, "maybe I should go see what Australia is like." I've been blessed with ever encouraging parents but my mothers response was all the same a little unexpected... It was as if she wanted to get rid of me! She explained that the experience would be nothing but good for me and after all, it was unlikely I'd be able to come home and be in an any worse off position than what I was currently!
From then on I started treating my little adventure as more of a reality, I'd set a date in mind, and started gearing my life towards making it happen. After all, if I didn't sort it out and make it happen then it simply wouldn't! Instead of buying a new car I had my old one repaired to see me through. That unbeatable value TV that was on offer, I didn't buy. The computer upgrades and latest games that made me drool stayed on the shelf's; so I could save up for my trip.
I had a figure in mind which I considered to be enough to get me by on for where ever I would go, and I achieved it! But still... I felt although I wasn't ready and that I needed a little more... and then a little more again! I guess in all honesty I would never feel as though I'd ever have enough money to pursue my dream and the date I wanted to leave on was coming up quick! Dare I book up and make it happen or just carry on hoping that one day I'll be able to do it when things might be more ideal?
Well... My noticed has been handed in, flights have been booked and visa has been acquired... I guess I'll find out soon enough if this was the right thing to do! But if nothing else I have great satisfaction that at least I'm finally taking some responsibility for the direction of my life, I'm making real changes and that feels fantastic.
