Before I leave, I wanted to answer a few questions that have been asked to me many times recently.
First, "Why Australia?"
As you can imagine, there are many easy answers to this question - weather, accents, kangaroos... I cannot honestly say that these things didn't enter my mind, but for me there are many more reasons (one of them not being how far away I will be from my family and friends).
As many of you know, I love to travel, and although I have been many faraway places, I have never been to Australia. The closest I have ever been is Fiji, and since that trip (when I was 15) I have always wanted to go back to that part of the world - not only Australia and New Zealand, but also Asia Pacific. Australia is the perfect place for me to live for the next year and also springboard to the neighboring countries. The Working Holiday visa that I have allows me to do exactly that - I can enter and exit Australia as many times as I want and work legally (although I can only work for the same company for 6 months at a time unless they sponsor me).
Also another reason: whenever I have been travelling, the most interesting and typically friendly people I met have always been Australian (including Sketchalopolis in Greece). They have such a refreshing outlook on life and a dry sense of humor that I cannot get enough of. I hope I that this continues to be true...
Finally, I have been out of college and working for almost 3 years, and I think a lot of us are in the place in our lives/careers where we are asking ourselves "Now what?" Maybe it is a generational flaw, but many of us are re-evaluating our lives to find what really makes us happy and we could see ourselves doing in the long-term. I am going to take this year to do a lot of things I wouldn't get to do normally, and hopefully along the way, I will have an epiphany of who I am meant to be.
Phew, now for the second question, "What are you going to do when you get there?"
The answer for this question is going to be much shorter, because to be honest, I have no idea! Since I have never been, I would like to travel before I settle down to find a job or an apartment. Ideally, I will be sleeping on couches and earning Qantas frequent flyer miles until June before I settle down if my budget allows. I leave from SF in less than a week (March 1st) and I arrive in Melbourne March 3rd. What happens to March 2nd I have no idea... After that I am heading to Sydney on March 10th, but I do not have any other definite plans yet.
Now, for the name of this blog, "Sailing Away from the Safe Harbor." Although totally cheesy, it comes from a quote that has been attributed to Mark Twain that I thought appropriate for my situation. Here goes:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
And finally, I thought I should start listing some things that I have set as goals for my trip - a to-do list of sorts - that I can add to or change at any time. Don't worry, I will let you know when they have been completed. These are not listed in any special order, just as they came to me...
- Become SCUBA certified
- See a kangaroo, tasmanian devil, koala, platypus, and echidna in the wild
- Learn to surf
- Cross the outback
- Learn how to drive on the other side of the road (and car!)
- SCUBA the Great Barrier Reef
- Visit Uluru or Ayers Rock
- Book a flight at the airport and then get on it (with no prior planning)
- Escape the dangers of Australia (including but not limited to box jellyfish, stonefish, sharks, blue-ringed octopus, poisonous snakes, crocodiles, etc.)
I think that will do it for now. Feel free to add any suggestions for me to add to my list! I plan to write often (or when Internet is available), but not enough to be annoying. I sincerely hope many of you come to visit or email/Facebook me or just comment here so that I know what is happening in your lives as well.
With that, see you in about a year! I am off to Explore. Dream. Discover...
