Blog Expectations

Writing a blog seems almost a bit narcissist to me. Posting thoughts about my life, career, and future plans for anybody and everybody to read seems like I am making a big deal of myself and dramatizing my life, which I feel contradicts my normal personality. So, I suppose it feels slightly strange to consider the fact that links are being emailed across the internet and a link was added to my facebook profile so people who I am not often in touch with can catch up on my life through a few pages of written text on the internet, as opposed to the more traditional method of actual conversation.

Not to downplay my plans because it obviously is a pretty big deal for me to up and travel for a month, and possibly more later on, but the truth is that what I am doing, traveling on my own and blogging about it is not unique. There are millions of people like me between the ages of 24 and 30 who have similar thoughts about their career and their future, thousands of people who are actually doing something about it, and hundreds who are blogging about their experiences. I personally have been inspired by other blogs, specifically these entries: How to Ditch your Cubicle and Plan your Escape, 7 Reasons to go travelling solo , and some random guy’s photo-blog of his month long trip to Thailand.

All things considered, I honestly don’t think it’s that difficult to find a few months to a year during this part of your life, to be able to travel or do something like this. Finding the courage and motivation to actual do it is certainly more difficult.

And while I do believe that traveling on my own will probably lead me to become more outgoing, social and worldly, I don’t think I will come back with a completely different mindset or outlook on life. My expectation is not to “find myself,” as I am already entirely comfortable with who I am and where my life is going. My expectation is simply to live a little, experience new things, and be able to define myself by things other than my career. When I see a friend who I haven’t seen in a while, the only real update I can provide to them is about my career, what I am doing at work, how I am doing on the CPA exam, what my future plans of obtaining an MBA are, etc, etc, etc. It’s as if my career has become my identity, and I want that to change.

But, I digress, in the interest of keeping this blog on the lighter side, I rather move away from the “why” and focus more on the what and where. I have spent some time researching the country of Thailand in order to help me determine what parts of the country I want to visit, and what I want to do there. With a few exceptions, I don’t think that I plan on making many reservations in advance to allow for spontaneity, but at the same time, I want to be prepared to know where I want to go, what I want to do and where I want to stay in different cities, islands, and national parks throughout the country. So, to pump me up for my trip, look for my next several posts which will each deal with my preliminary thoughts on all the exotic locales through Thailand that I will be finding myself at in November/December.