Did you ever wish you could just ditch everything and go and lie in a pile of yellow leaves in Osaka?

Do it while you can because life is too short and you never know what is around the corner...

My parents definitely did encourage me to take a year out between finishing school and going to university, which was great. While most of my friends from school went off into the grown up world of academia, getting massively drunk, doing all-nighters in the library and taking the first step into their degrees, I got on a plane and went to Mexico.

I did voluntary work while I was there, living in a center for underprivileged kids, helping out and teaching English, so I didn't have to pay for food or board. Young, fresh and 18, I fell in love with travelling and the idea of being in a completely different world than the cold, rainy town in northern England that I grew up in.

When I returned to that rainy little town I had dreams of taking another year out before I went to university. I thought I could go to France, become a chalet host, learn how to cook and ski everyday. My parents thought this would be a really bad idea and that I needed to get into education, because if I took too long of a break I'd never get a degree. [Fast Forward 7 years later and here I am working in customer service, with my First Class Honours Degree framed and collecting dust on a shelf, kind of ironic right?]

After one year of a degree that I wasn't that passionate about (Physiotherapy), I began studying Spanish and International Relations and wound up living in Madrid for year to teach english during my third year of my degree. Madrid is an amazing city, and I fell madly in love with the partying, the culture and the sunshine. My boss asked me to stay on for another academic year at the college I was teaching at, I agreed and deferred going back to rainy England for another year

Summer holidays rolled around, college finished for the madrileños and with no one to teach and everyone getting out of the summer city heat, I decided to go over to Australia for 3 months. I had a friend who was there so my plan was to just work in a bar, experience Australia and then get a flight back to Spain to start teaching when the academic year began. However, when the time came, I decided Australia was way too much fun for me to leave, I had already done a year in Spain and I wanted to experience this side of the world, so I stayed

My mum was not impressed at my choice, and tried to persuade me not to stay travelling in Australia, and to go back to my job in Madrid, but I had already made up my mind. Writing this post, I can see that things I wanted changed so frequently as I was growing up, but I think that is a normal evolution, right?

I believe that everything happens for a reason. Sticking to what I wanted and staying in Australia allowed me to travel so much more and I got to explore not only Australia but New Zealand and Japan as well.

This decision also led me to my husband, and my stepdaughter. I am so glad I travelled when I could and was able to pick up and move at the drop of a hat. I got married young, and became a wife and a stepmum at the age of 24, which means that I need to stay in one place and Sydney is my home for life now (not such a shabby place to shack up permanently).

I am so happy with the way my story played out, and so thankful for all the places I was able to visit, the languages I have been able to learn and experiences I have had. I really love being married because I love the feeling of having that partner to share all of the joyful moments and new experiences with, and I love that we have been able to travel to new places together as well.

If anyone is in two minds about travelling, or too scared to take the leap, I would copy Nike and say ''Just Do It'!. You won't regret things in life you did, you will regret the things you didn't do. Travelling does cost some money, but you can always make more and I believe in the economics of happiness 😊

Thanks for reading my little life story! Does anyone else have problems with wanderlust and being awfully indecisive when it comes to your next move in life? As always, please reach out to me in the comments. I appreciate any upvotes, resteems and follows if you like my content! 😍