Why I’m a Travel Junkie

 

 

Looking back at my life’s background, someone would find it weird to acknowledge  that i’m such a travel junkie..

Not hard to see why! both my parents never took a plane, my brother basically hates to travel and not many of my closest friends have travelled extensively (other than for work reasons).

So i started questioning myself…what all this frenzy to just go and see the world is about?

I thought about it for quite a while now, and since i left home when i was really young (just 18), i needed to find some kind of inspirational figure back then, and no surprise, the first person that popped  into my mind was one of my high school teachers: Margherita Casu.

MY FEMALE VERSION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS……

I bet she wouldn’t mind me mentioning her in my blog, she was an extraordinary person  and surely she was the first one to open my mind to the beauty of travelling the world ( even if it was just in a really boring class room in  between Kant ant Plato lessons)

She was a travel junkie like me so she would often enrich her lessons with some kind of anecdote about her adventures around the world together with her husband, like that time they took an old plane to Egypt and just risked to crash in the ocean, or that other time in which they were forced to sleep on the floor in a church with no roof for a week due to some natural disaster.

Back then i didn’t realise that everyone (yeah even little scared me) had the possibility to do what she did if one wanted to.

After all i was just a kid, listening to some sort of fairy tale of a brave, intrepid woman whom i admired more than anyone else.

She was the heroin of my fantasies, the Female Version of Christopher Columbus.  A surreal figure, not someone i could really relate to.

I think she just put the first seed in my mind…a seed that, on an unconscious level, i started nurturing since then and that, eventually, brought me where i am today…..On the edge of happiness, counting down the days since i will be finally be able to set off for my very own fairy tale!

AND MY MODERN HEROINES!

She wasn’t the only one influencing my passion for travel though.

I started  by moving out of my home town to go miles away at University, then Rome, and finally London, where coincidences, and like minded people, finally helped me realize that YES:  i could sleep under a million stars, swim with sharks or see countless sunsets on a beach, and God knows what else!!

Just to mention a few of them:

• My colleague Elisa, who bravely quit her job and took off for a 5 month epic trip in South America (thank you for the travel diary you just gave me by the way! that was one of the best Christmas presents ever)

 

• Leora Novik, another extraordinary girl who set the example for me!she was working for the same company as mine but in the US office back in 2011,  and we met when i went to NY in march when she kindly helped me in keeping my new dream camera safe  until my arrival!   that  same year she took off for her own dream trip around the world and also opened a blog  http://anamericangirlintransit.com/

That blog has also been a true inspiration for me. Her courage and enthusiasm were just so contagious! and every time i read about her whereabouts i can’t help but feel jealous (good jealous!) of her braveness.

These people have been among the most important examples and inspiration for my own trip.

In a way they gave me the balls to take the chance and convinced me that i could do it too!  (yeah sometimes you just need that extra little pushing to jump!)

 

THE ART OF HAVING THE BALLS  (easier said than done!)

Since i decided to leave everything behind me and travel, i met far too many people who were happy for me and told me “wow! i wish i could do what you did Clelia!”

I’ll be honest here….every time i hear that, i cant help but feel a mix of sadness and anger, because i wish they knew that they can  make it happen if they really want to!

Yes, ok. I know what you’re thinking….i’m over simplifying here…

We all have responsibilities, some more than others:  mortgages, children, families and so on. The so call “American dream” translated in each and every life.

The rat race i prefer to call it, but that’s me 

I know all of that. I know that is not an easy decision, but it all comes to set your priorities in life.

And people who know me  are well aware that i am no rich, my family isn’t rich either and i don’t have any kind of possession as a back up plan when i will be back…(upsss!)

• What about the job? unless you have your dream job already (in which case i truly envy you!), well we all are smart enough to  figure something out when we are back. It is not the end of the world to go out and find another one right? It’s not a pleasant sensation in the beginning,  i can tell. But in the grand scale of things its just so liberating to know that you are FREE, truly free from the 9/5 work routine , and because YOU chose it!  And the good thing is, after a trip of this magnitude, you could come back with a totally different plan, or re-energised and ready to start fresher and more enthusiastic than ever! and this alone sounds great to me!

 

• Family? who says that they can not travel with you? i’m reading so many travel blogs lately and  i was truly amazed on how many nomadic families with children are out there! So it’s not that impossible after all…

 

• Mortgage? you could always save up for your trip and rent the house for the months you are going to be away, or exchange houses to save accommodation expenses, or find another creative way to solve the “issue”. It can be fun after all, and certainly worth it! oh by the way…lucky you that could afford to buy a house in a first place  (jealousssss!!)

I think that most of the people out there who want to travel just find excuses because let’s face it: leave it all behind, for how exciting it may seem, it’s also shit scary!!

I know because i’m scared to death some times. I ask my self if i made the right decision, especially when i’m about to panic (which happens quite often lately!) and the answer inside me is always the same: YES YES YES! i wouldn’t exchange this fear with the comfort of my life as i knew it for anything in the world!

But i’m digressing now

I just want to thank all the people who influenced me during these years, i will be grateful to them ab aeterno

And, since it’s Christmas and i feel a bit sentimental, i wish courage and strength to all those people who are too scared to try and live their dreams. Whatever they dreams are….and i wish the same for me too of course. I need some courage to take that first plane the 10th of february and it’s getting closer and closer!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

 

 

 

 

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