When I first sat down and decided I wanted to start a blog, the plan had been to do something that combined my love of travel with my knowledge that in the very near future I’d need to deal with a break-up.
As most of my friends and family know, my girlfriend of nearly two years and I will be calling it a day early next year when her work-holiday visa expires. We’ve had two wonderful, exciting years of traveling and learning together – but now it’s time that our paths go in separate directions.
I had this grand ambition to have a blog that both covered my travels and gave me a form of catharsis as I sought to ‘let go’ after saying goodbye to my best friend. I even commissioned a particularly talented friend of mine to design a gorgeous backdrop for this blog that will never be.
But as I sat down tonight to register a domain and start work on the project, I began to realize that a blog about moving on after a relationship has a very limited shelf life. Even in the most extreme of cases, you’re going to get over the person eventually, and then your angsty inspiration dries up.
And really, who wants to read a bunch of entries in which a teary eyed guy frantically taps out his latest theory as to why it didn’t work, why he’s better off, or why he can’t live without her?
Shit, I don’t even want to read my old blog entries about it.
So, that ruled out Letting Go.
What am I passionate about? There’s a great many things I could write about. Rugby league, football, Dungeons & Dragons, movies… but at the end of the day, there is only one thing I am truly passionate about, and that is travel.
From the moment that a timid country boy stepped off of a plane at Incheon International Airport one chilly November morning in 2007 – I began a love affair with new cultures and new experiences that has only gathered momentum as I’ve grown older. My two years teaching English in South Korea were amongst the most eventful and life changing years I’ve ever had. I fell in and out of love; I made wonderful friends to whom I still speak to this day; I explored China, Japan, and the United States; I did a lot of things I never thought I’d do (and some I’d never do again); and I changed from that shy country boy to the slightly less shy and slightly more wordly man who writes this entry.
So, I was to write about travel. But what to call it? Travel or Die? Keep Swimming? Live It, Love It?
I couldn’t make a decision, and so I did some research and that lead me to Jack Kerouac’s fantastic On the Road. Very few books have been as universally loved as Kerouac’s tale of personal growth as he traveled around the United States. No real plot – just the musings and recollections of a guy who was out there living life.
And at the end of the day, that’s what I want. I’m an Aussie and I’m preparing to be back on the road.
Maybe someday I’ll want a wife and kids and the white picket fence – but for now give me a seedy foreigner bar, a language I barely understand, and a few interesting characters and I’m happy.
My name is Chris. I’m a 26 year old theatre graduate, writer, and travel addict.
So grab a helmet and climb on board. We’re about to hit the road.
