When I decided to go on my world trip, it was feeling so much like the right thing to do that I couldn’t understand why people were telling me how courageous I was. I couldn’t understand what was so big for them.

Actually, let’s go back a few years earlier: I’ve finished engineering school; I’m a grown independent girl now with a full time job and a flat with a roommate. That’s when the real life starts, isn’t it?

Or is it?

Conventional routine life maybe… But still, a nice routine with a nice job in one of the nicest cities in the world, nice coworkers and amazing travelling roommates inviting lots of people from all around South America. Two years listening to people telling me amazing travelling stories. At that time, I was not so much of a traveler, but more a tourist who liked to visit foreign countries for cultural insights. Except maybe when I first went to New Zealand: first time I went alone in a country without any plan, just a plane ticket back. And yet, it didn’t feel so adventurous since I had managed to find a cousin (I have a biiiig family) in Auckland and we traveled together around the country.

So, a conventional girl in a conventional life with just enough fun to live with travelers and dream of the day where I would spend more than 2 months in a row away from Paris (a thing that had never happened in 28 years!!!).

I started dreaming of getting a master degree somewhere like in Australia. But… after I started working, I didn’t feel like going back to school for more than 6 months… So what?

Well, anyway, new boyfriend who doesn’t want to travel much, new flat, lots of travelling around my country with my job: goodbye old dreams, let’s get back to the routine. Still, I was dreaming of something else. I was feeling like I was missing something. Straight from school to engineering life, no stop… is it really how it is supposed to be? No more 2 months’ vacation in a row? Just 2 weeks here and there with good friends and family? Amazing weeks, yes but still so short

Until, one day, I realized how unhappy I was, how Serge was wright when he pointed out I was always sick at work, how dad was write to say I shouldn’t be tired all the time. So, one step after the other, I paused to understand what was going wrong, what energy I had lost in things that wouldn’t bring me any. I started sorting out what gave me energy to keep just that : good, positive and funny friends, family and coworkers, sports, drawing, painting and traveling.

… uh… traveling you said?

Hum… but what sort of traveling?

6 months working visa in New Zealand? No, not yet, I’ve been saving money for 6 years and no mortgage to pay, I have a friend I want to visit in Washington, a brother in Singapore, a cousin in Philadelphia and another cousin in the North Island of New Zealand and a friend in the south Island. Let’s go for a trip around the world!

Easier said than done right? No actually, it is as easy to say it than to do it. Really, just try!

Or learn French and read: http://oiseaurose.com/2014/01/27/pourquoi-voyager-nest-pas-une-chance/ or http://capitaineremi.com/non-je-nai-pas-de-la-chance-de-voyager-1121/

Really, it’s not especially hard to go on a world trip for 8 month. Whether you are a man or a woman, or a family or a bunch of friends, whether you are rich or not, whether you have an important job or not, it doesn’t change anything: if you want to do it, you can do it. It’s not so much harder than to keep your day to day routine going on. As long as it really is what you want, you will find a suitable way to do it.

I guess, more than courage, you will need to be positive and keep an open mind: instead of thinking “Oh my God, this went so wrong!” try to think “hum… this doesn’t go as I had planned but maybe it is more interesting that way” :

• The place you wanted to visit is closed for some reason? Maybe it wasn’t such a great place to see after all and by wandering around you will find a better thing to do.
• This person was supposed to host you and doesn’t answer or can’t host you anymore? Maybe it is time to look around and: oh, this backpacker/guesthouse/hotel looks so nice and is so cheap also it wasn’t in the guidebook…

Yes, guidebooks are helpful but, please, don’t stay stuck on them! They can’t know everything; they certainly miss some amazing things. So if you have enough time to travel, try to go away from your guidebook from time to time: You will have some amazing experiences!

And, better advice: try not to plan your trip or to plan it as little as you can. The less you plan, the less you get surprised when some unexpected things happen.

It’s not hard to go away and travel, it’s not luck either, it’s a choice that needs just enough courage to jump out of your comfort zone.