BootsnAll Travel Community

As I've spent YEARS plotting my escape, I've researched TONS of options. And, largely thanks to you guys, I've figured out ways to make them ALL viable options.
My options generically boil down to:
A.teach
B. study
and C. travel.

Specific options I have in mind include:
A. studying Spanish for a summer, likely in Guatemala
B. Travelling around Central and South America for 2ish years.
C. Teaching English in:
China
Japan
Korea
Taiwan
Thailand
D. Spending a few months to a year travelling around the 48 contiguous states in a van
E. Studying Chinese in China
Russian in Russia
Japanese in Japan
F. A year or two in OZ/NZ
G. A year or so in SEA

etc, etc ... you get the idea.


Unfortunately, two things are keeping me from it all. 1. I'm horribly commitment phobic! I'm so afraid that I'll LOVE option A, that I'll never get around to options B-Z. and 2. That I won't live long enough to do it all.
I know noone can probably help me figure out problem #2, but I'd really appreciate your feedback on problem #1. If it were you, and these were your options, which would you go for first?
It is somewhat worth noting that I'll be 42 before I can make any of these options reality. And some of my teaching and studying options become more limited around age 50.

I think the board shys away from anything that sounds like, 'how should I live my life' with the logic that it's like someone asking you to choose their favorite color for them--it just doesn't work like that.

It's hard for me not to get caught up in external expectations--the only right choice is the one you're happy with--the one that's geuninely you.

That being said, I'll answer as though I were in your shoes. Perhaps start with the one's that seam must unlikely, the most appealing and interesting, the most rewarding. A year in SEA might do it for me at this point in my life--my age or your age for that matter.

Follow your heart and there are no wrong answers--the answers are wrong only when they're not your own. Which isn't to say you can't ask for feedback, i.e. get a sanity check on your plans.

If you wind up in a place that you love and can't imagine leaving--that doesn't sound like that terrible of a problem. Likewise seeing everything you wanted to see before you died seems like a greater tragedy than the alternative (i.e. running out of curiosity and wonder and places to look forward to).

Make the travel/life decisions that make the most sense to you--that resonate most truely with your internal constitution and you won't have any doubts about whether you've lived life to the fullest. Live your life--persue the things that make your heart come alive.

I'm rooting for you, they all sound like excellent journeys--you can't go too far wrong as long as you go without expectations--accept a place as it is for what it is. Don't regret it's not some other place or some other experience, enjoy and savor a place and it's people on it's/their own terms. You've got it in the bag.--ed

Sounds like you could easily stroke many of those birds with one hand...

Start where you are with a cheap pickup truck and a topper. Take your time driving thru the states to Central America. Stop along the way to study Spanish, rent an apartment for a few months, etc. Experiment with a few locales until you find one you really like. Free-lance teach for a while and see how that suits. Take lots of extended trips to out of the way places. Team up with other travelers you meet and make money shuttling them around in your truck while getting to see the places yourself.

At any point in the trip you can commit to staying in one place and teaching, staying in one place and studying, or continuing a vagabonding adventure...you can always sell the truck or drive it back to the states and continue on that month or year trip seeing all that's weird and wonderful in America.

Same could be said for teaching/traveling/studying in any of the countries you listed...although probably not as easy to drive to