quote:

Adulthood is highly overrated.

Agreed, Static. Thanks for the rant, made my morning.

I've been trying to convince my wife that, even if we can't get a leave of absence in a couple of years from our jobs, we should just say "screw it" and hit the road regardless.

Cheers!

I'd certainly say go for it, AND, make it work for you:
If you have a job now, talk it over w/ your current boss, One of my co-workers is doing just this, leaving in a month.

Keep him/her in the loop, give him/her PLENTY of notice and offer whatever assistance you can to assure a smooth & seamless transition to your replacement do everything you can to leave on great terms. Keep in touch w/ him/her once in a while, as you never know, you may just need that job when/if you get back, and it wouldn't hurt to make a minimal effort just to keep a bridge/channel open.

Ensure that you not only will have no regrets about taking the PC plunge, but ensure you have no regrets about the experience itself and what you do with it. Beyond the lore & adventure of the opportunity, think of how it fits in to your dreams, what you want to do, etc. and be intentional about what you'll be doing w/ the PC, what you want to do and don't want to do, etc. so that when the experience is over, you won't have any regrets about it.

i would say, go for it!

the pressure to "settle down" with family, kids, house with a white fence only increases with age.

as someone, who didn't start traveling till I was in my thirties, I do wish I had done something like this in my twenties. but oh well-- better 'now' than never

As a 48-year-old who DID take off to join the Peace Corps when she was 24 I say GO FOR IT!! The Peace Corps was an incredible experience and one I've never regretted a single day. I learned a lot and the experience opened my eyes to a lot of other opportunities. In fact - I ended up teaching in international schools for 12 years because of my Peace Corps experience!

Trust yourself.

The Naysayers will be there for everything you do. You can listen to them and hear them out, but trust your own feelings.

I have never regretted the stuff I have done, only the stuff I didn't do.

I'd just like to agree with what most of the others have said - if it's something you'd really like to do, then do it.
My husband is 40 and is now on his second career. He originally trained as a scientist and spent 6 years at university, but decided to make a change as he wasn't happy in academia. He now works in a completely different field and has no regrets.

In less than two years we are planning to take our three children on a rtw trip, which will mean him leaving a perfectly good job and taking our children out of a great school, with no guarantee of getting them places there when we return. We still feel nervous about these things, but have decided that at the end of the day we will regret not going far more than we will regret giving up those things.

I have plenty of friends who are about ten years older than you who are now on their second careers or who have given up work to bring up children like me. I even have a friend who spent a year in a monastery and is now an investment manager. If future employers don't have the foresight to value your experiences, then you probably wouldn't want to work for them anyway.

Make the decision that's right for you, not for others.

Follow your dreams and remember, you'll never regret anything that deviates you from the "traditional" path, especially when it is something meaningful like the peace corps.

Whistler wrote: Sometimes asking people their opinions can have an adverse affect - the opposite of what we intend. Instead of helping to clear our minds, all it does is add confusion and doubt.Don't listen to what others say, listen to your own inner voice.

Whistler gave my favourite advice... to myself!

I know this is an old thread, but I just can't help myself.

At 32 (almost 33), I left a cushy, very well-paid and stable job to travel the world. When I was contemplating this seemingly HUGE leap, one friend "assisted" my decision-making process by actually computing (completely unbidden, mind you) the biological-clock math: If you leave for one year, you won't meet a guy until after you've been home for a little while, probably not until you're "at least!" 35. Then you'd have to date him for about a year before you get engaged, give it one more year to get married, and so by the time you start trying for kids you'll be over 37!!

My response: Whatever, dumbass.

What am I going to do, give up my life-long dream of travel just to wait around town in the hopes of meeting a guy -- someday, maybe -- who may or may not father a child that I may or may not be able to conceive, as it is?

I'm not that desperate.

So here I am, a little over 2 years later at the ripe young(ish) age of 35, re-visiting this site for the first time since completing my RTW trip. Why am I here? To plan my second RTW trip. A honeymoon. With the Irish man I randomly met in a random Vietnamese town while on my first RTW trip.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that solo travel is in the least little bit about meeting your future spouse. I'm just saying that life is full of surprises. Follow the road less traveled, and you'll be rewarded 1000-fold. The independence, wisdom, and peace-of-mind I gained during my years of travel far exceed the value of the money and prestige I sacrificed by choosing to leave the rat race. (Plus, I had LOADS and LOADS and LOADS of fun.)

So go with your gut. Twenty-seven is SO young. Really! It is SOOOO young!! And the Peace Corps is a worthy cause that will open countless doors for you.

Believe me, I know how hard it is to take that first step. But once you do, you'll realize that it's not really quite the plunge you thought it would be. It's just one little step that will lead to another little step -- and so on and so on. And before you know it, those two years will just fly by and you'll be laughing at how daunting it all seemed to you only two years ago. I'm not saying there won't be ups and downs, but -- at least for me -- the ups far exceeded any downs I encountered along the way.

Good luck to you!

Finally wrote:

....If you leave for one year, you won't meet a guy until after you've been home for a little while, probably not until you're "at least!" 35. Then you'd have to date him for about a year before you get engaged, give it one more year to get married, and so by the time you start trying for kids you'll be over 37!!

My response: Whatever, dumbass.

What am I going to do, give up my life-long dream of travel just to wait around town in the hopes of meeting a guy -- someday, maybe -- who may or may not father a child that I may or may not be able to conceive, as it is?

I'm not that desperate.

Boy, I'm glad you posted this. I love hearing this sort of thing, especially from a woman. There are so many people out there, especially friends of ours that are so conditioned to live life according to convention...as if that's the only way to do it and that we should all follow suit.

Wow. I was in your shoes 11 years ago and I ended up going. My trip was a little different, but the philosophy is the same. For me, it was just over 10 months and I went pretty deep into debt after the 3rd month of travel. I don't regret ANY PART OF IT.

While standing in a train station in some small Italian town trying to decide whether I should fly home early and get a job and get a real life,... I called a good friend of mine back home. He was attending law school and about to graduate. He told me that upon graduating, he would be in more debt than his entire family had ever been in combined. "Keep going," he advised. You can always make money, and if you don't, then just keep traveling.

Continuing to travel was the best call I ever made. Now, I'm at 43 countries and 6 continents. I love travel. My brother and I share a line about being "George Bailey's wet dream." We are both avid travelers and encourage everyone to travel.

Types of travel I could do and people I could meet at the age of 27 compared to now (38) are completely different. Who knows what types of doors will open/close in the future? You will miss out on things by going and you will miss out on things by staying. Imagine yourself at the age of 90 sitting in a rocking chair looking back over your life. Will this adventure be that one thing you wish you would have done or the event that triggered that fantastic chain of events that led to a fantastic life.

Take your trip. Go. Live. Build a village or something and make that 90 year old man proud!

hi everyone. so it's been over a year since my original post and i thought i'd give an update for anyone who's curious to what happened with me.

the failing economy really freaked me out and at the last minute i backed out and decided against peace corps. i'm now writing this from the same computer at my office job as i wrote my first post. ... no, just kidding.

just writing that depressed me!

So it's taken me about 15 months from the time i applied to get to africa but here i am. i'd be lying if i said it's all been fantastic. the peace corps experience has been overwhelming, frustrating, and eye opening. i've had some of the most awkward experiences of my life here but with each passing day has been an incredible learning experience. and as i've quickly discovered, this is nothing like traveling. there's things i miss about travel, like meeting westerners on a regular basis, moving on when i'm sick of a city, and generally being MUCH more physically comfortable (and healthy, ha). But being here has given me a whole new perspective about the people of the developing countries i passed through as a backpacker. So, in response to my original concern: yes, i am missing out on things being here, and i'm ok with it. even during the tough times here i've never looked back.

No, I would not do it. But I'm not much of a volunteer.

It would sound OK for a few days or week, but 2 years is not my thing.

My volunteering is limited to buying some florescent spray paint and marking the dangerous potholes the village does not fix on the edge of cliff in my local. I don't donate money either can't afford it Charity begins at home for me just like Thoreau wrote in Walden.

All this being said, no volunteer blissninny here buys spray paint, stands on a precarious blind curve with a few inches to stand and dodges oncoming speeding traffic to mark the road to keep people from crashing...so it takes all sorts to make a world.

(Really they are pot even potholes, they have no bottom to them, the asphalt is gone and it is a sheer drop.)