Traveling is about...Perseverance

View over the mountains from my airplane window from my flight from Manila to Caticlan

Yesterday I went for a massage and chose an "affirmation" beforehand. For cynics, this may sound a little like hooey. Swallowing my pessimism, I shuffled the cards and drew out Perseverance.

That's pretty meaningful, I admitted to my (massage) therapist before explaining my upcoming travels and goal of working overseas.

Looking back at last week I:

• got my UK work visa approved
• handed in my resignation from my place of employment for the last three years
• made meaningful contacts in preparation for working in the UK
• finalised acommodation for my 5 week European summer holiday
• agreed to spend Christmas in NYC with my brother

All of those things, no matter how big or small, are an accomplishment or steps to achieving something major. 

I know for a 20-something, giving up work and your normal daily-life for travel seems frivolous. Friends and colleagues may look at you enviously or think you're insane. Sometimes I think maybe I am a little crazy to give up my friends, my work, my security blanket of home-life.

Yet traveling in itself is a mean feat. It requires saving money and sacrificing shopping/socialising, hours of planning and organising and leaving behind the familiar comforts of home and stepping into the great unknown.

Things I thought I'd never do? I'm selling belongings that I love and forgetting all sentimentality. I'm asking strangers for help with professional contacts and networking everywhere I go. I'm savouring things I take for granted in my home-town of Perth.

The perseverance continues... and I'm perfectly fine with that.