Life Begins with a One-way Ticket
When the alarm clock sounds, how many times do you press the ‘snooze’ button? Have you ever asked yourself why? Maybe you’re a wild party animal and you’re only in your third hour of sleep before it’s time to rise and shine for work, or maybe you’re just sick and tired of the same old routine…
Everyday life can become a drag when it revolves around heading to work, slaving yourself through an 8 hour day with nothing keeping you going but the coffee you bought from the same-old café down the road.
Why not take the mirror-test? Spend a full minute observing your reflection from head to toe, look yourself straight in the eyes and ask yourself, “Who am I? If I was another person, would I be your friend? Is this what you really want from life?”. The best thing we can all do here is be completely and utterly honest.
If you get the answers you want – good work, stop reading. If you don’t get what you hoped for, maybe it’s time to make a change… But what? Buy a car? A house? Follow the system? Or go all-out and follow the road less taken. Why not travel the world? Become momentarily anonymous and clear the canvas of everything you’ve ever known.
Buying a one-way ticket to anywhere in the world can be as liberating as it is nerve-racking, but it’s not a new social trend. It’s been tried and tested by many predecessors before us, and guaranteed if we could put them all to a vote, the majority would tell you, the result of this so-called ‘social experiment’ is complete and utter self-discovery.
You’ll meet so many great people when you travel solo
When on the road, take the challenge and travel solo. Make sure you know what to expect, travelling solo is not always sunshine and lollypops – you can expect to ride a roller-coaster of extreme emotions, from complete freedom to the darkest depths of loneliness, but when the journey is finally over, you’ll just want to do it all over again.
A wise man once said “Knowledge is power”, but let’s face it, what can you really know from reading a book if you’ve never stepped outside the box? Just hold your breath for a second, purchase that sweet liberating piece of paper that could potentially change your entire perspective of the world, step on the plane and go experience life (yes it sounds cliché, but clichés aren’t derived from nowhere – they’re a by-product of actual life occurrences).
Because life isn’t just about paying taxes, having a mortgage, or following a system that some do-gooder devised to keep people in order. It’s about those little moments that make you truly appreciate the beauty of world we live in. You’ll make memories that’ll give you an energy for life that can’t even be described.
Whether it’s the time you thought you were going to die cycling through the streets of Amsterdam, the stein you raised in the blissfully chaotic beer tents of Oktoberfest, the warm breeze you felt walking a romantic Arabian beachfront, the Northern Lights you witnessed in the vacant snowfields of Iceland or the stinking Elephant you couldn’t wait to get away from in Thailand.
No matter where you go, the choices you make there, the people you meet and the cultures you experience – it’ll be something intangible that no one can ever hand you on a plate or tell you about in a book.
It’s your story, so write it.
by Tash Martí, Events Manager & Party Starter at Thirsty Swagman
