“What time does your flight leave?”
“10pm. Could you take me there a few hours earlier?”
“Sure, we can leave at 6:30.”
I had been waiting for this day to happen for five years. It was only a fantasy that I would daydream about - up until the last four months of my life. A one-way ticket out of Australia, ready to go and see what was beyond my nest.
We sat down in the departures lounge and ordered one last coffee together. I didn’t know when I was going to see my mum again, so I made sure to soak in every second with her before I had to leave.
My nerves were racing. There I was, two backpacks sitting by my feet with my entire life carefully packed into them. I’d finalised everything else in the last couple of months - I’d quit my nice job with a comfortable pay, gave 90% of my clothes to friends, family and charity stores, moved out of my rental apartment, no furniture or car in storage. There was nothing of mine to return to.
But that wasn’t such a problem for me. In fact, the decision to minimize my belongings was extremely liberating.
There was something else on my mind though. Something that had my heart racing.
You see, I had a secret that I hadn’t told anyone. Not a soul.
By the time I’d decided to quit my job and exchange my savings for flights to North America, purchase some luggage and travel necessities, it didn’t leave me with much time to save up more money before leaving.
I was sitting in the departures lounge with a little over five hundred (Australian) dollars in my bank account.
But I was determined.
I had spent the last month simultaneously feeling scared and excited. My heart was in my throat, and I had no clue what to expect. The only thing I was certain of was that returning to Australia in less than two years was out of the question.
The time had come for me to say goodbye to mum. We gave each other a long and tight hug and exchanged some loving words before our final goodbye. Before I knew it, I was buckling up my seat belt and staring out of my window, watching the runway pass.
It was the happiest moment of my life.
I was finally free from the mundane and achieving something powerful in my life. All I could hear in my head was Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack Dawson from Titanic quoting “When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.”
Well touché, Leo.
I write this post two and a half years later since that evening, still abroad, currently living in México.
The first month of travelling was by far the toughest. There were some days that I hated and wanted to be back home, I was scared and had to learn a LOT of lessons the hard way. But it got better with time, and there are always high points and low points when travelling, just like there are in life, but I appreciate every challenge and victory that I’ve had along the way.
Since beginning my travels, I learnt, studied, worked extremely hard, failed, accomplished and experienced things that I didn’t know I was capable of. There have been times throughout my new life that have felt rewarding, cultivating, lonely, contemplative, hilarious, life threatening, overwhelming, underwhelming, crazy, romantic and beautiful.
I am at a point where I would like to share my stories - because there are many - both in writing and photos. I want to improve my writing and photography skills, and see this as a great exercise.
Thank you if you have read this far, and please follow if you wish to read/see more of my stories.