For my own use as much as anyone else's, a few travel links I've been pouring over:

http://www.travelindependent.info/whattopack.htm
http://www.travelindependent.info/books_planning.htm
http://www.travelindependent.info/topplaces.htm
http://matadornetwork.com/notebook/how-to-travel-for-free/
http://matadornetwork.com/topics/volunteer-work/travel-and-adventure-jobs/
http://matadornetwork.com/change/10-volunteer-opportunities-for-free-travel/
http://www.moneychoices.com.au/blog/12-ways-to-travel-the-world-for-free.php
http://www.vagabondish.com/8-tools-travel-long-term-live-rent-free/

Labels: travel

Nights like tonight are ones I wish I had done things differently. I wish I had been smart with my money in college. I wish I had either not wasted my time in a relationship that's gone or that I'd done enough to make it work. I wish I had actually tried in school and kept my grades up.

I don't really have much to complain about. Its weird because I like my job. I work for a company now that gives me more opportunity for upward mobility than any I've ever worked for. Its one of the largest companies in the world. I can go so many places with it, but for some reason what I really want now is to not be tied down at all. How silly is it for me to see that I'm almost 26 and feel like I've let the best part of my life pass me up? I'm so selfish, especially when there are people I know who would give anything to have some of the things I have or to have been spared from some of the terrors they've had.

I keep bringing up my wishes for travelling to people, and I know no one thinks I'm serious. I don't really bring it up in a way that makes it sound like I've made solid plans, but I'm really only a few days into this whole thing. Its kind of cool knowing that no one really looks at this, but that if I were to travel, people would be able to see it. Someone can look back at this post in May and see how it started to come together.

goodnight.

Labels: travel

The more I think about it, the more I want to take steps to make some sort of travel adventure take place. Whether that's just doing one location and finding somewhere to work for a few months or its trying to actually go place to place and make it around the world. As I type this, I'm reading a blog post about how to pack light and what essentials one should have when traveling the world.

I'm reading a lot and now its almost 4am.

I've long since abandoned this blog, 3+ years now since my last post, but I find it interesting to look back, and thus I won't be deleting it. I still sort of wish I had my old Xanga and other short lived blogging ventures intact, so I could see what was going through my mind back then.

Not much has changed. I'm still searching for something. Even now as I find myself in the most stable situation professionally that I've ever been in, I find myself wanting to run away, wanting to do something crazy, wanting to break free from the bs and the financial things that lock me into this lifestyle.

Who knows, maybe this feeling will take hold for once. I've gotten excited as of late about working to pay down my debts. The idea of not owing anyone anything is pretty cool. Actually, it seems so foreign that its scary.

I mean really, why do I get up and go to work 5 out of 7 days of the week and do the song and dance? Well, I went to college so I could get a good job, right? Well now I really only find myself working to pay for the education I just got. I wish I had thought about all this sooner. I'm going to turn 26 in August. I feel trapped by my 30s. If I'm aggressive, I can pay all but my federal loans off by June 2012. That's another year of my life.

Today, I've been borderline obsessed with researching all kinds of world travel. How to move around the world with no money, etc. This on the heels of trying to plan to completely pay down my debts.

Who knows, maybe I will resurrect this blog. 365 days abroad - Jan 1, 2013, start my trip, flying out somewhere, not knowing where i'll go next. Leave with $5k to my name and hope that's enough?

Or I could give up on it again.