The pressures of society sets up and lays out how we should grow up and act. It presents the idea that everyone should go to primary school, high school, college, university then have a career, get married, have children and then eventually retire. From a young age this idea has been presented in front of us along with the idea that, in order to become successful, we have to follow it. Yes, many people who follow this life plan are very happy and successfully do something they love and have families they love. For a few people this idea isn’t very motivating: these are the people who want to explore, have adventures and identify a new way of living and this is totally okay. There is nothing wrong with either option as, at the end of the day, it’s your life and as long as you are happy nothing else matters.
If you graduate from college or university and want to travel for a month, a year or 5 years that’s perfectly fine. Whatever your reason for travelling, you will learn something new about yourself and maybe even find your way in this terribly confusing and media obsessed world.
In my personal opinion, I believe everyone should travel; whether it’s for a holiday or 6 months, getting away from your social norm helps you in a number of ways to be happy, be content with what you have, discover who you are and more.
When I graduated University I had every intention of getting a full time job, moving in with my boyfriend and living out what was expected of me. Fast forward three years and I am getting ready to spend a few months travelling around America, my boyfriend is Colombian and I live with my parents. Life has a funny way of turning out exactly as you want it to. There are a large number of moments in my life where things haven’t gone my way: I have been upset with not getting hired for jobs, being turned down at interviews and getting out of relationships. Looking back I realise these things happened for a reason and they all brought me to where I am today. So yes, I believe it’s okay to not get a full time job straight out of college or university; in fact I encourage everyone not too. Go out and explore the world, fall in love, do stupid things, party all night, get lost in Paris, do things you have always dreamed of doing and somewhere, somehow you may find exactly what you were looking for all along.
Don’t live with regrets. You only get one life so don’t spend it doing a job which you don’t love to go to every morning. There are so many options out there for you; explore and do different jobs until you find one you love doing. The world is so small and visas are fairly straight forward to obtain that you shouldn’t just keep to your local town. Opening your horizons to the wider world can create a lot more opportunities. Different countries have different jobs available: you can work as a tour guide in Thailand and as a climbing instructor in New Zealand. Imagine getting paid to do your hobbies or passions because this is a reality in some countries.
I have created a start list of jobs available abroad on my blog post ‘A beginners guide to jobs abroad‘ which is a good place to start finding your adventure and it includes a list of useful companies and job searches.
Remember ‘to live is the rarest thing in the world, when most people just exist’.
