WARNING: This post is mainly a rant about my date last night. I know this subject has been discussed before but I just need to let it out!!!

This was the question my date asked me last night! When I asked him what he meant by that he said "well, you know, a life where you weren't always planning another trip". Ummmm NO! I can't imagine that life. I would be very depressed if that was my life. I know that circumstances sometimes prevent people from traveling from time to time but to even think about giving it up forever is, well, unthinkable! And just what about that would be "normal"???? I guess it is my fault....I knew he wasn't a traveler when I said I would go out with him.....but I thought I was converting him....I guess he thought he would convert me. HA! He did seem to enjoy my travel photos and asked lots of questions about my trips.... But I knew that he had never been out of the country and hadn't been on a plane since pre 9/11.......

My New Years resolution....DON'T DATE ANYONE WHO DOESN'T HAVE A VALID PASSPORT. I think I will make them bring it on the first date!

I also have the passport rule. Good call

Yet another reason why Rocknrod and I don't date.

Since sort of settling into a job and a career path, I am feeling peer-type pressure to lead a "normal" life because the life I have lead thus far has not been particularly "normal". I have not worked on the same career since I was 15. I have not been married, had children, nor bought a condo.

Instead, I have lived in a few different places, divested myself of most of my worldly belongings every couple years or so, met some fantastic people who I still consider friends even though they live in different time zones and I have been educated. My education has come in the form of learning to adapt, seeing things in a different way, as well as formal classes.

Since then, I have returned to my home-ish town. I will probably never feel like I truly fit in here. Probably ever. Very few people understand why I would choose to squat in a hangar for a winter to save money. Even fewer would understand why it is totally acceptable to live in one's vehicle for a while because you don't plan to stay in one place long enough to bother finding a home. These people judge a fair few of the decisions I made while following my adventure and reject them as "strange". My new friends find out about this stuff in bite-sized portions to keep them from being overwhelmed.

My fellow city-dwellers sometimes make me feel like I am not measuring up and I have to keep reminding myself of the reasons for the choices I have made and that I can't possibly be where they are because I was too busy having an adventure. Apparently, by this point in my life, I should have a lot more "stuff" than I do purely because that is the "normal" thing to do. Mind you, I could have a lot more things than I do, but I keep choosing to not bankrupt myself to buy them all today, unlike so many "normal" people.

Ah well, such is....

Grrrrr.... this thread brings back memories of a certain relationship of mine. He was obsessed with "normal" and what "everyone I know" does.

I talked to him yesterday. He just blew oodles of money buying a $600 "kegerator" (apparently, "normal" people drink a LOT...) and all kinds of "normal" extravagant throw-money-down-a-hole crap for Christmas while I went to Thailand a few months ago and am taking off for Italy in two weeks.

No regrets, I have my life back

Would I be satisfied with a normal life? Sure, my life is normal, right? I eat at one end and excrete at the other. I work hard enough to have enough to have the things I want to have and do the things I want to do, and I hang out with people who are either like-minded or at least open minded. I think this guy failed on that last one.

Here's a funny thing: BB (my boyfriend) had never taken a road trip before he met me. I blithely asked him to drive the tin tipi across about nine states to meet me last summer, and he said "sure!" He grabbed a map and some money, loaded up kids and dogs, and took off. It was only later that he told me it was his "first time" and that he was scared shitless at first. Since then, we've taken three extened and in one case random road trips, all his idea.

What I'm thinking is, it's not so much what people have or haven't done, but what they are willing to entertain as normal.

La

When I met my BF 10 years ago he had done one 6 week trip to Oz and few trips to Oz (from NZ) to visit relatives - and he was over 40! Within weeks of becoming an "item" he'd agreed to joing me on a trip to the other side of the world to my brother's wedding in Ireland. We have subsequently done several Oz trips, Fiji, 2 months in Spain/Greece, 1 month in SEA . He has now resigned and we leave in March for a indefinite time trip driving around Australia.

Some of them can be educated - they are the ones worth keeping!

quote:

Originally posted by La Rosser:
I work hard enough to have enough to have the things I want to have and do the things I want to do, and I hang out with people who are either like-minded or at least open minded. I think this guy failed on that last one.

What I'm thinking is, it's not so much what people have or haven't done, but what they are willing to entertain as normal.

La

Very much agreed. I have many non-traveling friends but they don't try to make me out as the abnornmal one because of my wanderlust. They love me for who I am and are always willing to listen to my travel ideas and stories even if they would never go on that kind of a trip. Needless to say I am spending my New Years Eve with them and not him.

I thought it was funny when I told my daughter what he had said she started laughing and said "well, I guess he's toast" Yup.

Being a person who loves to explore and see new places, I would definitely prefer a well-travelled life over one not.

However, the one true source of real happiness and peace is God. That's all I really need to be happy.

If they have no passport RUN!!

My last GF told me if I wanted to keep dating her I would have to settle down or we were through. I left the restaurant and let keep the check. Life without travel is no life at all.

I couldn't imagine life without travel - to me, that wouldn't be 'normal'.
My grandmother and some of my friends think I'm absolutely nuts, packing up and leaving Australia for China for an indefinite amount of time, but my parents and a few close friends have been really supportive.
I've just started telling people who are unsupportive that it's my life, and I plan on enjoying the adventure, and don't want to spend my life stuck in one place, just because something bad 'might' happen. If you lived your life like that, you might as well not leave the house.

I have people always whinging at me to move out of home, buy a house, stop coming back to the endless job if you stayed longer you'de get a better job you like blah blah.
I've only been at my job 2 years and I have been away 3 times equalling 8 months and the last time i resigned since I been made full time and when i arrived home they rang me to give me a job back so even if it's one i dislike it's all about the money.
My mum threw out my forms to go work in a summer camp in America. This year I went to europe and she gave me alot of money towards my trip so I could go when I wanted to. I think she finally got it I like to travel. I might even get her to go somewhere other than NZ eventually. (Not offensive Kiwis we've both been 3 plus times). I just say whenever anyone says oh I am getting a car first and house etc you are doing it the wrong way. I always reply Ok come on a trip with me when the kids move out, the mortage and rego has been paid. I am starting to get more aventurous too.

I dont think the normal things in life need to interfere with travelling.
Normal is what? Having a home, getting married, having kids.
Well my mom and dad had a home and kids.
They also still went on trips constantly. When we where too young to go abraod we'd take road trips through the USA. When we where old enough they took my brother and I off to explore new continents. I got Vietnam and my brother got Europe.
Since we have become self-sufficiant adults my parents can still be found in Japan, Asia, Africa, Europe and all over the USA. Normal lives can be integrated. Granted you have to have good jobs and you have to want to put up with a 16 year old girl asking for the umpteenth time, "How many hours left in the flight? 15!!! like, oh. my. god." BUT I think it's fully possibly to entertain the idea of a 'normal' life that includes travel.
--And while I dont have a passport rule I do have a must-want-to-travel rule. Luckily it usually ensures passports.

I think it's 'normal' to pursue what you want out of life, whatever that may be. Whether it's a house and some kids, or a gipsy life, or hardcore bondage and latexing yourself to a wall for fun.

Hmm...I don't have a passport rule either, but then if I were to date someone who didn't care for traveling, then he'd have to be 100% ok with me leaving him to travel on my own or with friends! Because I *would* leave him periodically! :-) But there are very few people out there I'm even remotely interested in dating, so it's kinda a moot point in general.

Regarding 'normal' life and some of the comments so far...I guess I'm pretty normal, since I'm fine having a place I call home. :-) I've always felt I could integrate pretty well with all types, as I can see lots of viewpoints. So in one sense I'm quite normal and half of me is admittedly a homebody - I like my home and I like certain comforts. :-) The other half of me needs to take several trips a year and see things and experience things. I crave it.

I also have never noticed people giving me hard times about travelling, or not being married, or not owning a house or having kids..or even a boyfriend for that matter, ha ha..I maybe get teased now and then, but that's lighthearted. I also think most people don't look down on travelling or people who live outside the box, but are rather envious, and turn it against you. You just have to slough it off. I find it rather humorous instead, because it's not like I really want *their* life necessarily! I imagine most of my coworkers are amused by me, as while I can integrate myself here, I also have a feeling I stand out a bit..but in a good way. It's like people get excited through me, or something. They eat my trips up, they love looking at photos, and hearing about my trips.