No Turning Back Now
Taking a grand idea and making it into a reality has taught me a few things so far. Some of these I believe to be universal truths, and some are simply things I have learnt about myself.
If you haven’t read the first blog post (I would link it here if I were technologically savvy.. can anyone help with that?), the grand plan to which I refer is my idea to travel around the world. This plan has, like a piece of taffy, been pulled, stretched and rolled in many directions. It seems like every five minutes I have a new idea that contradicts my last idea. Plan the whole thing, don’t plan any of it. Volunteer everywhere, voluntourism is sketchy. Go on crazy adventures, save money and travel for longer. This begets my first discovery: There is no right answer, and no easy way to decide what’s right for you. Frankly, I keep telling myself this, and yet myself doesn’t seem to care. This goes to show that just because you learn something, doesn’t mean that you make it actionable.
The second thing I’ve learned is that I love making lists. Now, this one may apply only to me and my fellow list-makers (I know some of you hate them), but I must at this point be able to put together an encyclopedia sized book of the various lists I have made. So the new plan is to amalgamate all of the information from the lists into an organized and reasonably sized booklet that I can travel with.
Another thing I’ve learnt is that there is a lot of preparation that goes into an extended travel plan. There’s all sorts of things to figure out, like meds and shots, physician sign-offs for activities like SCUBA diving (especially if you’re an asthmatic like me), figuring out fine details like glasses, contacts, first aid kits, getting all your documentation up to date, extra passport photos for visas, letting the government know where you’re going, saving up money, etc. These gritty details are things that the movies seem to gloss over, and it comes as a shock if you don’t know about it.
The lesson I learnt most recently was how real it all becomes when you shell out money for something permanent like your first flight. That was today’s adventure: The First Official Step. Heart pounding, palms sweating, and credit card in hand, I wondered if this was the right thing to do. Was this the cheapest flight? Could I do better? Should I even go? What about my job? All these questioned held my hand over the confirm button until I realized that there was nothing to do but push the questions aside and click the button. And that’s exactly what I did. The fears and questions remain, but now I can’t chicken out. This is the first time that I’ve felt that I can be officially excited, because if nothing else happens, I’m going to Ecuador.
Now I just need to quit my job…
