People tell me I'm brave. Quitting my job in this financial climate in order to go off travelling - alone. I don't feel brave - I feel lucky that I am able to do it and I feel an extraordinary sense of freedom.
Am I really lucky? Yes and no. I'm lucky because of where I come from. I've grown up in a developed part of the world where it is easy to save enough money to go off travelling. But you also make your own luck. I'm not materialistic and I can't stand any form of waste. This means that I only buy what I need which is a big part of the reason why I have found it so easy to save up to go travelling.
Am I really free? I'm not caught in a poverty trap like much of the developing world. I'm not caught in a debt trap like much of the developed world. I see the world as one place. One whole place, with one race of humans on it. I don't have irrational fears of different cultures, and so I don't feel restricted to a few "safe" places in the world.
So why travel at all - why not just be content with a little patch of England's green and pleasant land? My friend nicknamed me Driftwood many years ago because of an inherent characteristic of mine to go off and explore - often on my own. This would often mean losing the group I was with, although inevitably I would find them again. Perhaps on a different timescale to the one that I was expecting. Maybe I'd find them hours later, rather than minutes later. Who knows what would happen in these unexpected hours. It's these moments that I enjoy - not knowing what is coming. Living for the experience. Some good - some bad. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. If I come to a junction and don't know which way to turn I'll often turn the way that I think is the wrong direction. Why - because if I turn the right way first time, I'll never know what the other path holds.
Many people collect possessions as a sense of identity - to help display to other people who and what they are. I collect experiences. So how do I use these experiences to display to others who I am? Very few photos can truly capture a moment for what it was to the viewer at the time. And for me, my recollective memory is far too poor to be able to regale many stories of my experiences. But I believe that each and every experience shapes a person. These are my identity. These experiences shift my perspective and mould my beliefs and core values. This is me. It's not available to see on a picture on my wall, by a book on my shelf, or by the car that I drive. It's not available to see in a few minutes of small talk at the pub.
I travel alone because I want to get to meet people from all walks of life and I want to get to know them. Really know them, and I want them to get to know me. It takes many many hours of deep conversation both sober and drunk. And of doing stuff together - work, games, dance, song. These are the experiences and the connections that I am looking for when I drift.
