The big question

I must say, I’m really glad that I had planned to leave a month after finishing up with work. I didn’t have to feel too rushed. Saying goodbyes to family and friends is probably the toughest part of the pre-move phase. I feel sad about not getting around to see all the friends I had planned to meet up with, but I’m sure we’ll meet again very soon.

Probably the most common question I’ve been asked is, why? Why am I leaving? What’s the purpose of the trip and spending a year in Australia?

There are multiple parts. TL;DR: read the bolded keywords.

Change – this is probably the biggest one. Those that know me will know that I dislike changes. I love stability and shy away from anything spontaneous or risky. This is great if I see myself doing the same thing for the next 10-20 years, but at this stage in my life, I know I need to be able to adapt quickly to changes. Picking myself up from a location where I have spent nearly my entire life, built up my friends circle, and relocating to a completely different part of the world knowing next to absolutely no one – is quite a scary thought – and yet I’m planning to do that. If I can do this, I figure I’d be able to overcome any other changes and challenges in my life with much more ease.

Time – it’s the only thing we’ll never have enough of, and something we can’t repeat. When we were young, we thought that we had all the time in the world to spend. As we grow older, we constantly hear people say that they don’t have enough time to work, sleep, etc. And soon, our biological clocks starts hitting the late 20s, and suddenly everyone around us is getting married, having kids, and moving on to the next chapter of their lives. Sure, 30 is only a number, but what do you want to achieve by that age? After doing some research, most working holiday visas have an upper age limit of 30 – and since I have no control over this, I better do it soon.

Independence – this is a no-brainer. I’ll be living minimalistically on my own for an extended period of time. Make my decisions, manage my own time. Done and done. Travelling: Scary, alone, and slightly more dangerous this way, yes, but you’ll definitely put yourself out there and meet more people this way.

Rediscovering my passions – I’m pretty sure I know what I love to do and what I don’t care too much about. However, those are under very familiar situations, so who knows what I might discover in the land down under within the next year or so? You don’t get many chances in life to try something completely new and not have to worry about starting back up from zero. So when you do, embrace it and make the best of it. The worst that can happens is I move back and go back to what I was doing before? That’s still a really good outcome.

Travel – the SE Asia trip is just the icing on the cake. I keep telling myself and others, flights from here to Australia is cheaper through Asia. And now I’m spending my money for 2 months without any income. Ha, go figure. No, but seriously, with a working holiday visa it gives me the flexibility to work full or part time as I take breaks and trips here and there. I don’t think I’ll ever get to travel for this long again. I ran across a travel blog a couple months ago and it has become one of my favourite inspiration sites: read it and you’ll see why.

So there you have it. If you’re on the fence and have to choose between the scary exciting thing and the safe thing, do the scary exciting thing.

And through all of this, I have the most supportive family and amazing group of friends I could ask for.

Two more days and counting. Here we go.