Big 30 Project: Traveling Alone

I never traveled alone. My parents didn’t allow me to. Of course, when I got married, Bernard has to be there. Things may change, however, in a few months to a year.

A few hours ago, out of the blue, we talked about India. A number of friends discouraged me from visiting it. It didn’t help when I was doing research I came across plenty of “bad news” for tourists. Anyway, it then led to backpacking, which I really wanted to do for a very long time. He made a good point: if you truly want to know the culture, you have to learn to live their ways.

So I thought, “Why don’t I take the challenge?” And I’m dead serious.

Right now I’m already running a few options in my head:

• Thailand
• Vietnam
• Singapore
• Malaysia
• India

If you haven’t noticed yet, these are all Asian countries. I don’t have a lot of moolah to sustain myself if I travel farther. Besides, I think these places will still allow me to work, so I get to immerse myself in their countries while I don’t end up really broke once I come back.

I know this deserves a very thorough consideration and back-and-forth thinking, but this is definitely one of my priorities for my Big 30 Project.

The BIG 30

I’ve been gone for a bit. No, scratch that. FOR A LONG TIME. I got sick for a while, and I had to catch up with work after. But I’m glad I survived.

Today, I’m going to talk about 30. For the past few weeks, I thought about one of my biggest realizations: in two years’ time, I’ll be hitting 30! I don’t know with others, but when you discover something about yourself, you tend to develop a whole new kind of perspective. For me, it’s making me sit down and think hard about the past 3 decades.

What have I achieved so far?

What are really my aspirations?

What are the things I still want to do?

I know there’s still a huge lead time between now and two years after, but it’s not too early to celebrate, right? So I decided to come up with a BIG 30 Project, and it’s going to be grand–at least for me. It will document everything I’m going to do from today until the time I reach 30. I’ll also deal with my biggest accomplishments and failures over the last 30 years.

Now, just thinking about it, I’m excited!

Life Is Good

For the past few days, I’ve been challenged by a lot of things. But you know what?

I DON”T FEEL AN INCH OF MASSIVE PANIC AT ALL.

I guess it’s pretty normal to fret when things don’t go your way, but the truth is, deep in my gut, I’m just plain happy! And at peace. I am at a point in my life where I know I don’t have much, but whatever I have is enough.

Most people fear feeling happy. They think there’s always that huge dark shadow that’s going to take it away from them, even forever. I usually have that moment too. But right now it’s the least of my worries. Rather, I’d say, “Bring it on!” I don’t know what my future battles are, but I’ll deal with them once they come.

Right now, I’m going to enjoy this happiness.

 

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