Yesterday, I had a brief visit from my uncle and his wife, both of whom are still in their twenties. We sat around the kitchen table and talked for a bit and then eventually they asked me what I’ve been up to and what I had planned next. I remember when I used to dread these questions, but yesterday, I couldn’t have been happier to sputter out the words, “I’m going to travel.” As I explained to them the craziness that I had in my mind, I could see their minds spinning to grasp onto the questions that they planned to ask me once I finished rambling about this fabulous life that I had dreamed up…only months ago…technically, years ago.
After I paused long enough for them to interrupt my daydream, they confessed that they’ve always wanted to get up and go spend a few months in Costa Rica and possibly even live there. Then came the inevitable…”But, we can’t.” This was followed by the millions of baseless “reasons.” (I am using way too many “quotations.”) As we talked some more, they eventually started to realize that it was possible if they wanted it and even went as far as to make a framework of a plan to follow their dream.
A few minutes after they left, I noticed that the impossibility was removed from their minds simply because they had talked to me for twenty minutes. Here I was, a real life person, planning my journey around the world. The only thing keeping me up at night was where to go next. (Seriously, I can’t figure out if I should go back to Brazil, head to Morocco, dip into Colombia or maybe even venture to Mozambique). I realized how drastically my thinking has changed over the past few months. Seven months ago, I was very skeptical about what I really wanted to do. But now, I have no doubt that I can travel and live wherever I want. The reason why: I started meeting and talking to people that traveled. Between meeting Caldeia on Twitter and hanging out with people from Couchsurfing, something in my brain clicked and travel became very uncomplicated.
If you want to travel, hang out with travelers.
Here are some great places that you can find them:
1. Couchsurfing: This website is the Facebook for travelers. There is a couchsurfing group for just about every city in the world, including the one you already live in. It’s a great resource before going to a new city and with Couchsurfers in every area of the world, you have a friend everywhere.
2. Hostels: On my last trip to Brazil, I spent a lot of time in the Che Lagarto hostel, even though I wasn’t staying there. I met some of the most interesting people. Some had quit their jobs and were traveling, others were taking gap years and some had just moved on a whim. Just hearing their stories made me excited to get up and go somewhere else. Knowing that there were so many people doing it made it seem a lot less sketchy.
3. Travel forums: My favorite forums are Tripadvisor.com, Lonely Planet, and Virtual Tourist. I can (and often do) spend hours lurking around these places reading travel stories from people all over the world.
4. Flickr: Maybe it’s because I’m a photographer, but I love looking at photos from destinations. Flickr has by far one of the greatest collections of photos and subsequently, travelers. I’ve found myself wanting to go to a place just because I saw a photo on Flickr. Actually, it’s where I saw all these mysterious alleys in Lisbon and I’ve been hooked since then.
5. Blogs: I’ve stumbled across a lot of blogs over the past few weeks. Eventually I’ll stop being lazy and add them to my blogroll or maybe I’ll even be fancy and create a links page. Actually, that’s exactly what I’ll do because there are just too many great reads to just list them here and I really don’t want to leave anyone out. All of them have inspired me in some way to travel…and write. I will list them all later, but here’s the link to my favorite post from Vagabonding Life…here.
I hope this list helps you. Keep in mind that it’s not limited to travel. If you want to be happy, hang around happy people. If you want to be an entrepreneur, hang around entrepreneurs. If you want to dream big, hang out with big dreamers. If you want to…I think you get the idea.
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Rhona
1 year ago
What an excellent post!! Seriously, so inspirational for me. My plan is to move to Germany, after only having lived there for 3 short months. I loved it so much and really want to spend a bit more time emersed in the culture and traveling Europe in the meantime. However, a few weeks ago, I all of a sudden got terrible cold feet. there is nothing really stopping me from my action plan but me! Even my mother called me today from a bookstore as she saw a book on German grammar she thought I might be interested in! (Trust me, she was shocked that I wanted to go back to DE). Even people at work are backing me but I was and sometimes, really scared. I don’t know why but it is slowly going away. This fear of mine. Like you, I have been reading many a blogs and I am soooooo shocked and inspired by many black people and women who are saying, the hell with it, and living out their dreams.
It seems that this post could not have come at a better time for me. Thank you! I also have been on many expat forums and blogs which gives me inspiration to make my move.
I will be adding your blog to my list tonight so I can keep up with you and your travels around the world.
If you don’t mind me asking, where is your next destination and what are you stops? This is so exciting for me.
you can also check out my blog I created while I was in Germanay recordingly my time there at: http://canada2germany.travellerspoint.com/
Rhona´s last blog ..Shaking my head
shannon
1 year ago
I’m so happy that this helped you. The fear is healthy, just don’t let it stop you. I was also surprised to see how many black people are traveling and I do everything that I can to encourage more to do it. You learn so much about yourself and the rest of the world and of course it helps to eliminate barriers.
As for where I’m going next…it really keeps me up at night. I’m going to toss a few locations in a hat including Lisbon, Rome, Morocco, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil and then just pick one and go for a few months.
Caldeia
1 year ago
WOW! Shanon, it’s so great reading your blog, I loooove it! It’s all about travels =)))
I agree with you 100% about spending time with people who have the same interest as you and those are also the ones that will unintentionally motivate you. Once you take the step outside that comfort zone, you’re done, there’s no returning back and that’s just such a great feeling!
People’s talking about cities and countries being dangerous are just people who want to justify themselves staying at home instead of taking that step they’d rather like to do.
Keep on these lovely thoughts and thanks for the mentioning =)
Cheers!
/M
Caldeia´s last blog ..To give or to take
shannon
1 year ago
Thanks Caldeia! I definitely have you to thank for making that Brazil leap when I did.
Caldeia
1 year ago
I’m so “sorry” for giving you that idea
So glad you loved it as much as I did!
Caldeia´s last blog ..Life’s too short to be long
shannon
1 year ago
I bet you are! Brazil was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.