There is probably no better education than traveling. It opens your mind, makes you stronger, stirs your curiosity, builds confidence and gives you knowledge about the world you live in. Unfortunately, the one thing it doesn’t give you easily is a job you like, that will sustain you unquestionably. Consider yourself lucky if you can live from travel-writing, or have some sort of business or assets that give consistent returns so you can spend the rest of your life trotting the world.

I’ve been in Spain for the last year and a half teaching English. It’s easy, it’s not boring, it’s a way of living, a means to an end. But do I want to do that for the rest of my life? Does it matter what I do as long as I’m living my dream of traveling? Is it too late to start other work when you are done seeing the world and want to settle? Will my previous work experience be worth anything if I choose to take it out of the closet 4-years later?

Although I have lived the culture, seen a good part of Spain and Europe whilst I earned my wages teaching, I feel like I haven’t traveled enough; I think the worry of where next month’s rent is going to come from got the better of me.

If you are anything like me, and come from a world of cut-throat corporate culture, when you decide to leave everything and see the world or live another culture, as much as you will attempt to do it in the best way possible, don’t be surprised if you feel guilty that you are not working and your career path seems to have come to a dead end.

My guilt has kept me put when I should have traveled more. You may not care about being rich — you are traveling the world after all — but seeing people your age doing great at their jobs and having a certain standard of living that they probably will never lose, can, for no good reason, punch you in the face; especially when they tell you about the 2-month paid holiday they are taking to Vietnam.

I’m now telling myself the same thing I had to when I first headed out:

• Traveling and living abroad on your terms takes a lot of courage.

• Language skills you acquire when living in a different country, are priceless.
• Should you want to get back into the working lifestyle, your experiences and developed personal qualities will probably make you a stronger candidate for the position.

These thoughts lead to another:
If you are clear that you are vagabonding for, say, a year, then I suppose that’s what you have planned, and your “planning” pre-trip will help you (financially and mentally) live your time out traveling to the fullest. But, if you are like me, who just wanted to live another culture, learn another language and see the world — and made no concrete plans, or changed them all along the way, two-years into living this lifestyle can really make you wonder what next? That’s where I’m at.

Do I go back to a 9-5 job? Do I go back to school? Do I move to another country? Do I plan a few months of travel before I make the decision? Why didn’t I travel as much as I had thought I would?

Do all these questions really matter? I think it’s the usual confusion you need to come to terms with when you choose to live an unconventional life.

Things have their way of falling into place. That’s what I’m going with anyway :).