I sit down on my chair at my study table as I look outside my window wondering where will I be after 5 years, 10 years, and so on.
I've got a lot of goals and dreams and one of them is to travel to unfamiliar places.
I don't know but when I got to travel without my parents when I was only 14 years old, through the Girl Scout Regional Encampment held at Subic Bay, Zambales, it opened my heart to go on an adventure. Being a Girl Scout awakened the adventurous side of me. After hiking through the mountains at Zambales, I told myself that this experience will not be the last time I go on hiking.
I fell in love with nature and adventure and all I want now is just to always be with nature and go on an adventure.
The sea and the mountains are where I want to go when I want to destress and forget about the things that keep bothering me.
I love staying at home because it keeps me away from people, but I also love going out and meeting new people. It's ironic but meeting new people and getting to learn from them also makes me learn more about myself. And through it, I know how to make myself better especially when I reflect on how I acted when I met new people.
My solo Sagada trip that happened last 2019 was the first step I took to make this lifetime dream a reality. It only lasted for 3 days but those 3 days are the best days of my life and I will never forget them.
Hiking Mt. Pulag in Benguet on my 20th birthday was also another memorable adventure solidifying my belief that there is no mountain too high if I want to make my dreams come true. And one of my ultimate goals now is to hike the highest mountain in the Philippines, Mt. Apo.
Then the dream of getting to travel on all of the provinces in the Philippines and traveling to foreign countries started. I started planning how I am going to make this lifetime goal come true. This is also one of the reasons why I have been saving up and working so hard to earn money to build my Travel Fund- for this dream of an adventure of a lifetime.
This lifetime goal costs so much money. I know because just traveling to Sagada already cost me more or less 10,000 pesos including all of my expenses in food, fare, accommodation, and souvenirs. But the money I spent, which came from my own pocket, was worth all of the beautiful memories I took home after those 3 days I spent in that place.
Then I began daydreaming of also traveling to some countries in Europe. In fact, I even thought of dropping out and proceeding with my plan when I was still in my 2nd-year of college. I'm in my last year in college now, and I'm still thinking of continuing that plan someday.
Don't get me wrong. I love my home. This is where my family is. But I just feel like I will never get to be the best of me if I don't get out of my comfort zone.
When the lockdown was imposed in the country, I talked to my mom and told her that I want to move out and live in an apartment where I will be the one paying all of my expenses. I wanted to live independently at that time. But things really just don't go as planned.
Then the read.cash came into my life. Through this platform, it introduced new ways on how to make money even though I'm just at the comfort of my home.
I learned that I can be a freelance writer even though I don't have a lot of experience as long as I have the skill, and that is how I got my freelance writing job before. Then the crypto-verse also brought up a lot of earning opportunities.
Because of all these ways of how we get to make money on the Internet, I am now planning to become a nomad right after finishing my degree. Well, if the pandemic will be over soon where there are no travel restrictions, I will surely be a nomad and push through this dream. The dream of living from one place to another, meeting new people, learning different cultures and traditions, and bettering myself each day.
This is just a dream for now. I still have more than a year to save up and plan things out. And with the guidance of the Lord, wherever I will be, is where I am destined to be.
Wonderlust is intense in many of us. It can make us a world trotter.
I happened to meet such a person on a local train in 2018. He was an anthropologist and a professor in the US. He lives with the tribal people inside the jungles of Africa and Asia. A movie was made about his life in 1992 by the world-famous filmmaker, late Satyajit Ray.
When I met him on the train, he might be in his late seventies. He gave me his local mobile number. He agreed to chat for a video interview. But, I took a long time to visit him for an interview. After a couple of months, I came to know that he was no more one day. He suddenly expired due to coronary thrombosis. I missed the golden opportunity of meeting an experienced global trotter.