BootsnAll Travel Community

Hey Guys

Just wondering if anyone has experienced a significant change in their life direction as a result of their travelling experiences?

Where did you always see yourself in the future, and how different has that turned out? What experience prompted that change?

Love to hear your stories!

[title edited for clarity by Jessie 17 November]

I don't know yet, give me a few years and a few more countries.

Well before i started travelling... when i was still at school and naive in fact, i stated that i would never leave South Africa... 6 years later and 4 years worth of travelling, i want to be everywhere else but here!

Also, i was pretty set for a career in IT... started my degree, but once i started travelling i packed that in and am now studying towards a career in the travel industry!

I was quite happily working towards a career in Human Resources, had myself signed up for college courses to complete the degree and was working for a large Canadian firm as their HR Coordinator, the whole plan all nicely settled.

Then I got called to go to Afghanistan.

After almost two years there I am now working towards a degree in International Relations, I am a Red Cross disaster relief volunteer and plan to go back in Afghanistan once my degree is completed to work with the UN.

Change of focus? Oh, just a little.....

I used to think that doing that whole lone-soldier travelling thing was the way to be. I used to think hanging out with backpackers was fun.
I dont really think that way anymore. I still can have fun in both areas but travelling really made me realize that the hostel scene isnt always my scene. I much more enjoy getting to know the culture, not getting to know Michal from France.
So it was a really odd experience. I love to travel, I get along with people who travel. But it really flipped all my preconceptions of what I enjoyed.
When I first started my trip I would search out people with backpacks and think "yay". Halfway through I would avoid them purposefully on train platforms and the like. Why? I'm not sure. I felt it was a barrier to me actually meeting someone from the country I was visiting. I just wanted to go deeper then the local hostel and pub-run. I dont mean this to sound harsh or condecending. I did meet some really awesome people and had some good times. But I had MUCH MUCH better times hanging out with a Tunisian woman or a Moroccan family or a Dutch writer then I did ever hanging out with my travel compatriots.
As far as being alone...I NEED my alone time. But a lot of the time travelling with someone was fun too. This may sound odd to most because I just said I didnt like my fellow travellers to peices. Well I didnt travel with them...I travelled with locals and made connections with them. So ya. I like to go in to a culture, delve in...go deep into it..then cahoot around vicariously with them and have mini-adventures with em.
It suprised me a lot and has changed a lot of my opinions. I didnt know it until I was in the thick of things but that's when I realized it.

Hmmm..anything else? Ya I realized just how much I didnt want to work a 9-5. I still do...but only to save money before I officially ex-patriate myself.

Before I went to Dublin I was engaged and on my way to a life of stay-at-home-soccer-mom in the suburbs. The food I would eat was limited pretty much to plain meat and potatoes. My geographic and cultural knowledge were almost nonexistant. I feared instability and spontaneity.

Since I left for Dublin I've traveled all over the world, a lot of the time by myself. Eating is my favorite activity. I read atlases and maps and articles/books about various cultures as much as I can. Career, marriage and children are buried somewhere in the back of my mind. I'm quitting my job in December with no plans except to take January off, then get a high ROI job for 4 months, then pack all my stuff in my car in May and drive across the country and see where I land.

Yup... travel definitely changed my life.

So many changes, but the biggest would have to be meeting the girl of my dreams and getting married. That was a shocker.

when i left to go to africa, i left behind my boyfriend of 1 1/2 yrs bc he wanted to get married and i was so "not ready". i liked to think of myself as "not the settlin down kind".. 6 months later i came back from Guinea hitched to a wonderful man...
skip to the following year. i went back to africa to pass some time while my hubby's visa was processed. this time when i came back, i was 6 mos pregnant.

yeah, that sort of changed my whole flow, but i'm on the path and i'm diggin it!!

Great stories guys, thanks so much for sharing!

I am currently working 9-5 in a job I hate and I feel this negativity is slowly creeping into my personality. It is very encouraging to know that people have gone out to see the world and in the process found out about themselves.

Cheers.

quote:

Originally posted by GingerSpesh:
Great stories guys, thanks so much for sharing!

I am currently working 9-5 in a job I hate and I feel this negativity is slowly creeping into my personality. It is very encouraging to know that people have gone out to see the world and in the process found out about themselves.

Cheers.

Ginger, I have been out there and I am still in the situation you find yourself in now. So I'm quitting. I think the most important thing I learned from traveling is that if I find myself in a situation I don't like, I - and only I - can change it. Granted, knowing this is a lot easier than following it... I hem and haw over decisions and whinge when things don't go my way, but in the back of my mind I *know* that I can make the change if I want it badly enough.

This is such a great question that I had to think about it for awhile.

YES, travelling has changed my direction in life, but maybe in more subtle ways.

I have a totally different definition of "enough" than I did before I left the U.S. for the first time.

I have a much broader understanding of what constitutes reasonable behavior.

I have a much more open-minded approach to food.

I have a much higher respect for what the United States of America aspires to be, and a much lower tolerance for Americans who think that might makes right and that we should get what we want because we are the biggest bully on the block.

La

I don't know really. The problem is I'm 26 going on 27 and I still don't know who I wanna be when I grow up.

quote:

Originally posted by disaster:
I don't know really. The problem is I'm 26 going on 27 and I still don't know who I wanna be when I grow up.

Ouch. IMO, you should be careful here. You should "know" by now and be working on it, even if you decide to change later on. Time's a-wasting.

Ginger -
Great question...and the replies have been interesting. I understand where you are. In 2003, I was in a completely unreasonable job situation that was making me desperately unhappy.So I quit.

Looked at my frequent flyer statement one day and said, 'Hhmm, okay perhaps this is why I've been squirreling these points away.' So, in early 2004 I took off for a RTW trip for 3 months (yea I know, not very long but it's what I could manage. Plus I'd already traveled alot).

It was amazing! One of things that really worked itself into my fiber was the realization that....I can do almost anything, if I set my mind to it. You sort of know that anyway, but when I saw people utilizing every little scrap of anything in some Third World countries and combined that with the awareness that I live in a country with enormous resources...money, knowledge, etc. Well, wow....I should do what I want.

Came back, thought, researched, talked to people and came up with a rather swell idea, if I may say so. I adore travel and found a niche that no one had exploited. So, in early 2005 I launched a unique travel-related retail website: HelloTraveler.com.

It's been quite a ride. Massive amounts of work, but fun.
Big change; all for the better!

quote:

Ouch. IMO, you should be careful here. You should "know" by now and be working on it, even if you decide to change later on. Time's a-wasting.

Aaah braslvr, don't put me down. It's not like I'm sitting on the couch waiting for my weekly benefit to arrive in the post.
I just don't know what I wanna do because there are too many things that interest me. At the moment I work in a travel industry but I have a feeling this will change after I come back from my trip next year.

I quit school, ended up married and working as a travel agent on the other side of the world. Plus now I don't put up with bullsh*t and things that don't make me happy.

Hey Disaster
Don't worry - same here! I mean I go to work each day and get paid but its such a crappy job! I really wish that there was something I was so totally passionate about that I could really focus on, but so far it hasnt presented itself.
I used to think that I would just figure it out one day, but I am going on 30 and its getting even less clearer what I should do!
Sorry I have no good advice, but even though lots of people seem happy on the outside with successful careers, there are a whole lot of people who feel the same way as you.
Just keep plugging away I guess!
Good luck!

Thanx Ginger, that's what I'm saying. I envy people who are passionate about their jobs. If I only knew which career would make me happy I could only go out there and get it. I never went to college because I decided to move to another country. Some would say it shouldn't stop me from studying but the thing is I didn't have a clue what to do with myself when I was 19 and I still don't.

Hey, disaster, gingerspech.

I'm a fair amount older than you two and have what most would consider a good career - interesting work, a good paycheck, a fair amount of work sponsored travel and eight weeks of paid time off (which is bogglingly good for the U.S.!)

The thing is, I didn't wake up one day and decide what I wanted to do with my life. I just...did the next thing. What has worked for me is to work the way I travel. Be inquisitive and openminded, try to do right by those around me and be ready to move on when the right opportunity presents.

If I were you, I wouldn't necessarily split my skull trying to figure out some amazing grand plan, just work out what you'd like to do for the next year or so. Try to leverage things you've done in the past that you liked, or that interest you a lot, and look for an opportunity that supports that. What happened to me is that after I'd done that a time or two, the work I'd done started showing a trend in my interests. After that, the "what to do next' got easier.

Good luck,
La

I think my family and good friends recognize customer service for a health insurance company is not my destiny. I'm quite satisfied, and find value and benefits from my work, however a passion it is not. So my RTW planning has the people who know me best telling me it's a way to change direction. I'm a little scared at the thought....first I'm trying to focus on making the trip happen, and then keep myself open to opportunities that occur or result.