How Working Abroad Shattered the Biggest, Scariest Myths about Adulthood
Iāll be honest; a few years ago I really didnāt want to grow up.
Before I left Canada to go on a working holiday in New Zealand when I was 22, I really struggled withĀ transitioning into adulthood. I was not looking forward to becoming an āadultā as everything that I hadĀ heard about it really didnāt sound that great.
Luckily, my amazing experiences around the world made me realize that I had been lied to. Guess what?Ā Adulthood is not as bad as everyone wants to make it seem. All of those big scary myths about what willĀ happen to you when you face the āreal worldā are just not true. At least, they donāt have to be if youĀ donāt want them to be.
I got a New Zealand visa and worked there for six months, which is where I met my English boyfriend.Ā Instead of going back home, I followed him to England and spent 14 months living and working in hisĀ home town in Lancashire. During that time I built up an online income as a freelance writer and now weĀ are ādigital nomadsā, working while we constantly travel the world, including Europe, North AmericaĀ and Southeast Asia.
āYour Only Chance to Travel Is When You Are Youngā
When I told older people that I was going on a working holiday to New Zealand, they all said the sameĀ thing to me, āOh thatās great. Do it while you are young because when you get older and settle downĀ you wonāt be able to.ā
I couldnāt help but be a little bit shocked by this statement. Are you telling me that there is only a smallĀ time window in my life when I am allowed to do the thing that I love the most and if I ever have a familyĀ I will be deprived of it forever? Somehow that doesnāt seem right.
After nearly two years of traveling the world and meeting travelers of all ages, I realized that the truth isĀ not that you āwonāt be able toā travel when you get older, itās simply that most people choose not to.
If you are past your 30s and you start having kids, itās fine to want to focus your energy on your familyĀ life and your career. However, recognize that this doesnāt mean you still canāt travel the world if youĀ want to. Where people get it wrong is when they confuse priorities with restrictions. You are in oneĀ place because you choose to be, but not because you have to be.
Instead of buying that second car you could spend the same amount backpacking around SoutheastĀ Asia for a few months with your kids. Just Google āfamily travel blogā and you will find hundreds ofĀ examples of families who are traveling the world together. Not only are they enjoying their passion, butĀ the children are having priceless learning experiences in different cultures around the world that theyĀ could never have in a classroom.
Iām not dreading getting old and settling down anymore, because I know that I will always make travel aĀ priority in my life. I will just have to be creative and figure out different ways to do it which work best forĀ my family.
"You Should Have a Plan for the Future"
Why is there this myth that adults have to have their life planned out in five year increments from nowĀ until retirement? Why is there so much pressure on young people to know where they will be 5 yearsĀ from now?
What I learned from working abroad is that having a plan for the future is actually impossible, becauseĀ you never know what is going to happen. I thought that I was going to go on a working holiday in NewĀ Zealand for six months and then return to Canada. I had no idea that I would fall in love with an EnglishĀ guy, move to England for a year on a UK work permit, become a freelance writer and end up workingĀ online while traveling the world. How in the world would I have planned for that?
In fact, I think having too strict of a plan for your life makes you like a horse with blinders on, missing outĀ on all of the paths that you could take along the way. Iāve learned not to worry too much about a planĀ and simply do what makes the most sense to me at the time.
"Having Your Dream Career is Unrealistic"
Hey adults, why do we tell children that they can follow their dream and do anything they want withĀ their lives, while in the same breath complaining about the fact that we have to go back to the job weĀ hate on Monday? Why do we create this myth for ourselves that our dream lifestyle is unattainable andĀ we have to settle for something less?
After my working abroad adventure I asked myself what I wanted to do with my life, and the answerĀ was to make a living as a writer and travel the world. Right now I am writing to you from Kuala Lumpur,Ā Malaysia after having been a full time freelance writer for over a year and a half while backpackingĀ across Europe, Canada, the USA and Southeast Asia. It is my dream job and I wouldnāt change a thing.
Why do I so rarely meet other people who can describe what they are doing as their ādream jobā?
Yes, it is hard, I wonāt deny that. To design your ideal lifestyle takes guts, imagination, commitment andĀ hard work. I slogged away at crappy low paying writing gigs in the evenings and weekends alongsideĀ my full time āday jobā while working abroad in England in order to set myself up for the 4 hour days onĀ tropical beaches that I have now.
But I think that the disappointment of committing for the rest of my life to a job that didnāt fulfill meĀ would have been much worse. I donāt think thatās growing up, I think thatās giving up.
The years I spent working abroad helped me to shatter the big myths that were making me so scared toĀ grow up. I realized that adulthood doesnāt have to be anything other than what I want it to be. Iām notĀ going to give up and swallow these myths, but rather continue to design the life I choose.
To me, thatāsĀ what growing up is all about.
Kelly Dunning is a writer for Global Visas, the worldās leading authority on immigration and workingĀ visas. Contact them to learn more about obtaining the right visa to work abroad in another country.