“You're not the same as you were before. You were much more...muchier...you've lost your muchness.” Alice in Wonderland
On January 12, my boyfriend of a year brought my world crashing down when he unexpectedly called time on our relationship.
On January 20, my job took a turn for the worse - a lot of my writing (which I love) was taken away from me and swapped for Excel spreadsheets (shudder) and emails.
By January 24, I'd booked a trip to South America.
And that, ladies and gents, is how it's done.
I've been wanting to travel for a long time now; it's something I've been thinking about since I was about 17, 18. But one thing led to another and before I knew it, I'd accepted a university offer - goodbye enlightening (drunken) gap year. Then, despite making the decision to go after graduation, I found myself getting sucked into the flurry of final year job applications and landed a writing position - the career I'd had my heart set on for years.
Travelling got pushed increasingly further down the list as I decided it was probably best to get some 'real world' experience on the old CV. I can't deny I had an amazing year and a half - I fell in love, got promoted from Writer to Editor and moved out of the family home - lots of achievements, lots of fun, lots of living. But it wasn't quite enough.
I only know that now, of course, after taking a step back from everything and getting some perspective. I was vaguely concerned I might never get out into the world but at the same time, I was happy - I think deep down I knew that it was going to take something drastic to make this happen. I still haven't quite got my head around the fact I'm going - in less than 2 months!
In a nutshell
So I'm kicking things off on April 3 in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, which I'm ridiculously excited about. Peru is next on the agenda, then across Bolivia and Brazil, ending in Rio. Then up to the States to do a tour of the incredible National Parks in the West - after checking out New York, obviously.
That's it?
No way! The rough plan is to do Europe over the summer and then jet further east when October swings around to explore China, SE Asia and, of course, Australia.
I'm incredibly nervous but also hugely excited to be going off on my own and doing something I've wanted to do for years. I'm blogging mainly so friends and fam can keep up to date with my whereabouts, but I'm also keen to make this into a useful tool for anyone about to go or thinking about going travelling. There's so much do before leaving; in fact, I've actually ended up putting a travel folder together...with dividers and everything.
This is my blog, as I travel from England to Ecuador and beyond, and go about finding my Muchness.
