Am I Alone?

Oh my gosh!!! I must be the lucky one .. i have found the happy medium .. here goes ...

I always felt different to everyone else because, i did everything the wrong way around ... career, home, family etc ... i had my children when i was very young (just 18) and have spent the past 20 years looking after them with no career mapped out for the future.

Finding myself a single parent a few years ago I decided to study and get myself some kind of career, something that could allow me to live independantly with no financial problems. I finished my studies and got myself a well paid job. My eldest son has just gone to University, my youngest taken on an apprenticeship .. and after feeling bored with life/ cars/ houses/ jobs .. having only bigger, better cars/ houses/ jobs to look forward to .. i decided i was bored with the rat race and looked for something else ...

Here it is, i leave for my first trip in 2 weeks time. Sold everything i have, my sons are sorted out with family for a year and Im starting with the bug ... now at 37 (still young i think) i have started to live life for me .. my sons have encouraged me to do this and i feel free to do whatever i want now.

The one thing i would like to say is ... live your life however you want, do whatever makes you happy, we only get one life!!!!

I am lucky to have only just found travel (or am i) .. i have at least 40 years left to do with what i want (well, once i know that my boys are ok of course) .. live life!!!

monkee - thats such a great response! And so true. My parents couldn't afford to take us around the world so they showed us what was in 'our own back yard'. Every holiday we were off somewhere else in NZ seeing our beautiful country and visiting places so many people never visit. So many of us jump up and run out the door to the other side of the world and don't see what we come from completely (ever). Maybe thats your happy medium s_hoot. See the world and enjoy it all and then take your family to see their own back yard whereever you settle. That way you can impart that sense of wonder and spark their own passion for travel. I've travelled my whole life. I didn't leave my own country until I was 17 but that doesn't mean I didn't travel. I got the chance to be a tourist in my own country and that gave me my passion for the world. That sense of wonder that all travellers have - that spark that keeps our feet itching and our passport filling with stamps - it doesn't only work when you get on a plane. It can work just by jumping in a campervan or a car and heading off!
You don't have to stop, buy a house and never leave your chosen town ever again. You may have to cut out the plane ride and stick to a country that speaks your own language, uses your own coin, has all the same radio stations but you don't have to stop!

who wants to travel there own country though and forget the rest of the world. after seeing what i have seen so far of the world ouside of the United States i find it so boring, so American here, and i just want to get out, get away from it all here.

Quoting s_hoot

who wants to travel there own country though and forget the rest of the world. after seeing what i have seen so far of the world ouside of the United States i find it so boring, so American here, and i just want to get out, get away from it all here.

I think the point is to take on every day as though you are a traveler through life, whether you are 5 miles from home or several thousand. I just got back from a business trip to Chicago. By your above rational, this should have really been a miserable experience. But if my travels have taught me anything, it's to slow things down and to just enjoy the "being there". Though I did have to get some work done, I also spent some good time just watching the people on the street thinking how different it was from where I am from. I really enjoyed my time there and for moments really did feel removed from the task at hand.

I guess my advice is to travel as much as you possibly can. But if you can learn to "travel" when you're at home, I think you'll find the interim between trips to be much more enjoyable.

Hi all
I have always loved traveling ,but only traveled three weeks in the summmer with being married and had three kids
Five years ago I made up my mind that I want to see more of the world so I have worked really hard to saved money to go traveling fulltime so this is the year that i'm going to do it and can't wait

life is to short to work all your life
I found that out the hard way my parnets work all they life and save up for their retriedment and died before reaching retriedment
I'm not going to wait to its to late

do it now before it's too late

going to travel to europe and north arfica and see where i end up after that

Jan

Misty

Quoting john7buck

I think the point is to take on every day as though you are a traveler through life, whether you are 5 miles from home or several thousand.

You've got a point there John7buck!
You don't have to cross the whole world to find a nice spot. Every country has it's own treasures, we just don't (want to) see them because were too busy looking for our neighbour's one... I enjoy as much I can from my own country. Every single day off in summer I spend it somewhere outside, enjoying nature (even though there's not much left) and life. Don't try to keep me inside! Sunday I'll start with my first biketour this year, crossing our 'lowlands', enjoying the view, landscape... have a stop over in the woods and have a pick nic... or I spent a weekend camping somewhere in our 'Ardennes', trekking, hanging around, observing the animals, listening to the birds, and chill out..... OK; I know, it's not an idyllic island, not 35° (this certainly not in Belgium ), no elephants or sharks, nor do we have the charming foreign languages, it's maybe not all that thrilling and exciting.....but still... it can be beautiful too...

Quoting Namaste

Well, I'm certain. I prefere to sleep in a tent not knowing where I'll be hanging around next morning, to be waken up by the first sounds of the jungle,

Wow I want your life!!

Quoting s_hoot

who wants to travel there own country though and forget the rest of the world. after seeing what i have seen so far of the world ouside of the United States i find it so boring, so American here, and i just want to get out, get away from it all here.

You know maybe you're ripe for immigration
Perhaps after you've finished your studies you can get a long-term assignment to a suitable country and take it from there
Then once you've found a country you feel more at 'home' in, you can stay there, travel there, AND do your world travelling from there.

I am 51, 52 in June. I feel very very lucky to have done as much traveling as i have over the years, all over the world, while at the same time having had a series of careers, some of which i have loved, and relationships as well. My life has been a series of adventures, both at home, here in the U.S, and all the places I have traveled- all over the U.S., all over Canada, all over Mexico, British and U.S. Virgin Islands, Dominica, Europe multiple times, including the UK ( Scotland, Wales and England), Belgium, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands,Russia, France..and Morocco more recently. I have camped, stayed with friends, stayed in hotels...the gamut. Have met people all over the world, including my fiance, who is Moroccan, learned to speak some French and Spanish, learning Arabic currently. I do own a home- a 520 sq foot shoebox, but it is on a pond and i enjoy kayaking and the wildlife in summer, ice skating etc in winter. I have made a choice to live in a small home so I CAN travel, because all my funds are not spent on a huge house etc.

My life has been enriched beyond imagining with all the adventures, fun and not so fun... I now have cancer, and have had occasion to take stock of my choices...i find that i have few regrets...I guess the point is that you should not turn down doing what makes you happy, and one can do both traveling and having a more traditional life in turns... my personal motto is "If you have the choice to sit it out or dance, i hope you dance!" And I am hoping to beat the medical odds for the 4th time and travel some more! If I wasnt ill I would be back in Morocco right now!

So, my 2 cents would be: don't stress, take adavantage of all the adventures that come your way, travel related and otherwise, and Carpe Diem!!!!

What an amzing life. You sound as if you have truly lived and done it all. I wish you the best of luck in beating cancer again. I hope you are able to get back on the trail soon.