I didn’t quit my job to travel the world. I made a job out of traveling and you can do it, too!

As we grow older, we always have a version of ourselves that we tell the world. Itโ€™s a little bit scripted because thatโ€™s how we sculptured the lives we want to showcase: perfect.

It wonโ€™t hurt, as we always think. We are just changing a little detail about a certain life event or a part of who we are. Itโ€™s no big deal.

There are always stories we want to tell ourselves. We repeat it so often that it sounds true.

As a part of a yearly revamp, I was browsing my blog yesterday and found the post: Before I ditched my job to travel the world, I was her.

Damn, I really was that girl. I was once obsessed with the thrill of looking pretty good and spending the money I didnโ€™t have on things I couldnโ€™t afford because thatโ€™s the job description.

Back then, repeating outfits when working in fashion is a serious crime. I said โ€œback thenโ€ because I am not sure about how the rules now.

I continued to browse the post and realized that these โ€œjobsโ€ I was in were internships. Not real jobs.

Uh-oh.

It slowly came to me that I have always been a freelancer. While I was doing my Internships and trying to like school (which never liked me back, btw. Not even once), I did a lot of fashion styling and magazine jobs but for whom?

For myself. I was working for myself. I was never formally employed by anyone nor did I sign a contract.

I am not sure if this is something I missed in this lifetime. You know, not knowing how it really is to have an office job.

I donโ€™t even know how an office looks like. How are the employee cubicles arranged? Is the boss on another floor of the building?

Are you supposed to do the time-in/out swipe with papers that look like Uno cards? What does one wear to work? Is it the same attire you wear when youโ€™re doing your final thesis defense?

I would probably never know the answers to these questions because I donโ€™t plan to do office jobs ever. This is by choice.

Even if the society I exist in demands me to do life in chronological order, the idea of working for other people didnโ€™t suit my soul.

If I forced myself to do it, maybe I am already checked in some mental hospital and wouldnโ€™t be writing this. Iโ€™d go nuts. Or end up dying at 30.

But the real question is, do you really have to quit your job to travel the world?

I left the environment that forced me to do the things I didnโ€™t like

Reader e-mails are the best part of my week. Whenever someone tells me they want to escape the cube they are in, I find it strange that they have to ask me what to do.

When I say โ€œthe environmentโ€ that forced me to do what I didnโ€™t like, I am not talking about the office or an employer. It was life in general. I was sick of it.

If I trace back how I did it, I just did it. There was no explanation. I couldnโ€™t figure out what was wrong not until I left.

I keep saying โ€œjust do itโ€ because if you feel it in all veins of your body that you want to leave, itโ€™s not rocket science.

Choose a place, buy a ticket, board the plane, alight the plane, arrive the destination and thatโ€™s when you start figuring sh*&^t out.

You donโ€™t need to plan anything yet because you are in a very difficult state. As long as you are still in unhealthy surroundings, you can never plan things.

You can never understand what you want to do until you free yourself from a toxic environment. Leaving is not easy let alone gathering the courage to book a ticket.

But Iโ€™ve seen people who are reading this blog take the leap. Whenever I talk to them and ask how their trip is going, they always say the same thing: โ€œleaving was the hardest part but as soon as I did, everything fell into place.โ€ 

Donโ€™t look ahead. Look in front of you. Whatโ€™s the first step? Or do you have to make traveling your job? How do you make it happen?

Freeing myself from financial dependency

I have always been given all growing up and when I have a $25 USD balance in my account, I freak out. Itโ€™s not even zero yet but the $25 dollar mark is a sign that doomsday is coming.

For a time, that way of life towards money controlled my life 98% of the time. Having that amount was not the end of the world.

In fact, where I am from, itโ€™s enough for at least 2-4 days of food but I still freaked out. Why?

Because I was on fast forward mode. I was thinking about the future. I thought about Monday every Tuesday. I was always 6 days ahead.

I found myself in very humbling circumstances when my parents werenโ€™t around. I remember being in financial trouble once.

I asked my parents for help and it didnโ€™t work. โ€œYou chose that life. Nobody forced you to do that so learn to fend for yourself.โ€

My mother was always right. That woman will not relent even if I tell her that I am already sleeping on the streets.

This taught me how to respond to difficult circumstances. I graduated from spending the money I donโ€™t have to spend the money that I do have.

It was a very abrupt change of lifestyle but to live by my means has always been challenging for me. Now, it has blossomed into the habit of spending on things that I can only afford. And what I need, above all.

Money, money, money. Yep, I didnโ€™t say we donโ€™t need it. Unfortunately, we can never transact anything on a daily basis without money.

If you would know how penniless I went in South America but relentlessly survived 3.5 years of traveling the region, you will be surprised at how the human soul is capable of anything. Itโ€™s the greatest learning I discovered from that trip.

Writing as a concrete form of doing what you want

I keep confusing home to a place but from Liz Gilbert, I learned that home is where you feel the love. There will always be something in this world that you will love more than yourself. For me, it is writing.

I did not have any formal education in Journalism. I studied Fashion for Christโ€™s sake. In the first part of this article, I said the first thing you need to do is to gather the guts to leave.

You donโ€™t have to plan. Writing came to me as an opportunity. Through traveling, I learned that I was good in telling stories. I always told myself I am great at it and thatโ€™s how I pushed through it.

I never wished for people to read my stuff but then they did. The stories I wrote were from the broth of my experiences, from my own truth.

It never slipped my mind to think about fame. I just wanted to write and be treated like a writer. I wrote, wrote, and wrote with no expectations.

Today, you are reading this and you are one of the reasons for the success of this blog. I have always been grateful for your support but never had the chance to ask: why are you spending time reading a blog of someone you donโ€™t even know? I am just curious.

Serious business

If I really want to keep seeing the world, I told myself I should do serious business with this blog. I moved platforms, researched (a lot), and almost spent a whole year growing my social media and creating good content for the blog.

The label โ€œgoodโ€ is based on my judgment. I found what I really wanted to write about: stories. Life happens as you read this, as your mind is playing tricks about what you are reading right now, as it is rapidly processing all the thoughts and slowly planning a timeline โ€” life happens.

It is meant to be shared because we are all unique individuals with unique lives. No one has the same life as I have, as you have.

Every day, we see and experience different things. This is a good push in believing that you have a story to tell.

I remember I was still in Uruguay and Argentina when I started growing the blog. I skipped a lot of the mandatory tourist circuit, rented an apartment (at the time, I didnโ€™t think I could ever afford it), and focused on the blog for almost a whole year.

Technically, I was still traveling but just pausing. I needed to keep my eye on the prize. Most days, there was a voice inside my head saying, โ€œwhat if I fail?โ€

โ€œThen fail,โ€ I replied back. If thereโ€™s one thing that got me through, itโ€™s the drive to keep creating. Writing was the only thing that kept me going. Writing for myself, above all.

Now read carefully because this is where the โ€œI made traveling my jobโ€ will come in.

I didnโ€™t have any paying job when I was building the blog. Imagine one whole year without enough money? I can.

I even almost tried to get an online job but then I told myself I have to drop everything so all my energies and enthusiasm will be poured into creating content and growing contacts.

When I wasnโ€™t blogging full-time, I realized that when you donโ€™t put 100% into it, it will never take off. Divided attention (with other jobs) will never help in achieving the โ€˜level of bloggingโ€™ I wanted to achieve.

After that year of sitting on the computer every day, almost 24/7 (believe me, it wasnโ€™t easy), I was rewarded with press trip invites, advertisements, and recognition from every major publication in the world. I was on high. My work was paying off, finally.

Nowโ€ฆ.

I used to sleep wherever, volunteer for free food and accommodations, etc. I still do this, by the way, but I found a different light in volunteering. Iโ€™ll discuss that in other posts but Iโ€™d like to tell you about my journey from being a pauper to being The King.

I experienced business and first-class flights, luxury hotels, have been invited to speak, have conducted workshops, and more than anything have been treated with dignity as a writer. All of this entailed hard work. Loads of it.

Last week, I was on a business class flight from Qatar to Sri Lanka and when I landed in Colombo, I had to take a tuktuk for 2 days to travel all the way to the Southeast.

One of my friends said, โ€œI think itโ€™s not appropriate for your image to promote business class flights and then be on a rickshaw the next. It doesnโ€™t fit.โ€

Some people are confused about the content of this blog but I donโ€™t specialise in anything. I am not a backpacker, a luxury traveler, a solo female traveler (Iโ€™ve had travel dates. Shhhhh!) etc.

I WRITE ABOUT LIFE.

I talk about the change that is happening in me, big, small or in whatever form. In relation to creating a job for yourself, this is what I want to do.

If someone asks me about the category of this blog, Iโ€™d say life. And you can do it, too!

Remember that changing your life doesnโ€™t mean you have to travel the world. Itโ€™s not the solution to all your problems.

First, find what makes you happy and believe that it is important. Because it really is. The job description you want for yourself is up to you.

No job opportunities? Create it. You want a better traffic system? Create it. You want to find parking lots in an easier way? Create it.

You have an idea in mind? Put it to life and create it. Never stop creating because it is the best way of making human life bearable!

Now I can say I never worked a day in my life because I finally found what I love doing. Itโ€™s not all rainbows and unicorns all the time but whenever I find myself in very difficult situations, I ask myself this question: โ€œAm I willing to do what I need to do in order for this to work?โ€

The answer is all the time YES. 100% YES. It really is true. Life is what you make of it.

Similar Posts

30 Comments

  1. my dear love ate Trisha, inspired over and over again with your writing. You nailed it. I thank God, I met you! ๐Ÿ™‚ more superb writing wherever you are.

  2. “Why are you spending time to read a blog of someone you donโ€™t even know?”

    My answer is, like what you’ve said, because you can make people read. You’re good at making us read your stories and it doesn’t matter if we only know you in web or if we’ve met you face to face, what matters is how you write and how you give your readers a different view of life.

  3. Hi! ๐Ÿ™‚ Its my first time to read and explore your site, and im so glad that I’ve read one. Thanks for the inspiration. ๐Ÿ™‚ I also dream of being a freelancer and a blogger, super thank you for the inspiration.

  4. You’re one of the blogger that inspired my blog. Everyday I work on mine, I open yours, up till now. I have a stable job and i love it, so i don’t have plan on making my blog big, just enough for friends and families. Just want you to know your works inspires and appreciated. More power. You don’t mind linking you, do you?

  5. It’s my first time to really read one of your posts thoroughly. Now, I have a better understanding why you are who you are. You write, so well. Not just technically, but your writing touches the heart. Reminded me of why we started our blog in the beginning. It’s an inspiration I needed to hear today. As a mom, as a blogger, as me. Love your passion. x

    – Rachel, @gamintraveler

  6. Just a big, long applause to this post. I’ve been there as well, the girl thinking 6 days ahead. What a relief when I decided to get out of that fake-golden-cage and grab my life as I wanted it ๐Ÿ™‚
    Your blog is really inspiring, I’d love most people I know could read it!

  7. Good job Trisha, what you say is true. I hated my job but wasn’t doing anything to change it. I finally decided to take action and two years later I ma doing what I love, but these 2 years were 24 hours working like you did.

  8. Good for you on making a life you love and being able to leave and travel the world. And from your experiences, it sounds like youโ€™ve really grown.Ignore the naysayers and people who say you should fly business then take a tuk-tuk. Continue to be yourself.

  9. It’s certainly true that one has to make the changes one wants to see in one’s own life, no one else can do it for you. I have huge respect for your parents for having that strength to say that, having chosen a lifestyle, that you had to make it work without falling back on the bank of mum and dad, because from your writing it seems that that one response on their part really helped you to find your own independence and to understand the concept of spending within your means but also to come to an understanding on what things you valued spending money on and what you didn’t.

  10. Really great read. I certainly know how you feel. I quite my job because after over a decade of insane hours, I wanted something different. Now, I have the flexibility to travel and explore as much as I want! It’s such a blessing. I’m certainly not making as much money as I used to, but I’m enjoying life significantly more, which is the most important thing for me!

  11. I’m not sure I agree that you need to do a blog 100% of the time to make it successful as I know plenty of bloggers that have successful blogs and work a full time job too. Undeniably however it is definitely going to help get things motoring.

  12. Trisha, Interesting read. It is brave you to let us have a peek into your thoughts. I too keep telling people that I am a full time traveler and that’s my job :). Wish you good luck and happy travelling.

  13. Life certainly is what you make of it, and if you’re willing to work hard for what you want then you’ll see the fruit of your labor. And I love your stories and that you can go from a business class to a tuk tuk. Your versatility is what makes you so awesome and inspiring!

  14. “why are you spending time to read a blog of someone you donโ€™t even know?” – because you inspire me. you really do. i feel your genuineness in every write up, i even tear sometimes.

  15. โ€œwhy are you spending time to read a blog of someone you donโ€™t even know?โ€ โ€“ because you inspire me. you really do. i feel your genuineness in every write up, i even tear sometimes.

  16. Wow. This is my first time to comment. I came across your website and I can say I am in awe! I’ve been wanting to start a blog for so long but I have too much things on my mind. I don’t know any niche, or specialties, etc. But reading your blog inspired me – and yeah, I know now what to write – life! All about life. Thank you! Xoxo.

  17. Interesting that point… I for example started my travels around the world to my 18 years of age and even though it was not something my parents wanted very much followed my adventurous heart and I have been through more than 20 countries. Traveling is something that is addictive and amazing to me. But I just find it interesting when you have an income of money that doesn’t depend on a physical medium to win. And I really prefer to travel by car on the roads rather than by plane. The plane misses a lot of amazing things like landscapes and impressive places. But unforeseen things can happen and always something unexpected happens. Very good Article:)

  18. Too late for this article to be commented, but i just want to answer your question “why are you spending time to read a blog of someone you donโ€™t even know?” haha i say, it inspires me to read someone’s life insights and experiences. I get a lot of learning from it. I also enjoy reading. It’s like for me, the same as “talk to strangers and you’ll never be judged.”. I get easily motivated when I read some blogs like this. It always inspires me to do things I don’t usually do. To conquer the unknown. And after reading blogs like this, I always picture myself doing stuff like yours. Travelling without looking forward on the things that will happen next. Doing what you want whilst of what you have at present. And it gives me more reasons and it justifies my wants to live outside my comfort zone.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *