Currently // London

When I came back to New Zealand in late 2012 after a 9 month stint travelling, my goal was to have a home base yet spend at least 2 months of each year travelling. While I’ve come close a couple of times, this will be the first year I’ve actually achieved it, and it definitely took a gentle push from several friends to do it.

While others experience real gut feelings when it comes to making life decisions, I’ve always struggled to make them. Many of my key ones have been made through my time to decide effectively being up, narrowing my options.

When I didn’t know what to study at University I fell into degrees in tourism and marketing at the last possible minute. I was working in a motel part-time and the manager advised me to get into tourism and learn a language. Then my high school crush told me marketing lectures were ‘fun’, which could not be said of my French paper so I made a trade in the hope of catching him there. I’ve now spent close to 10 years working my way up through a marketing career while wondering at times how I actually feel about what I do.

It can be hard to change your path, especially when you’re working for an employer you really like with all the aspects people want in an employer such as a ‘great culture’, ‘workplace flexibility’ and ‘engaged staff’.

When my latest marketing contract came to an end, I realised I needed to do what I wanted for a bit, rather than what I felt was expected of me, even though I couldn’t work out what that was. I already had a three week trip around Europe booked with my best friend when changes in circumstances in both of our lives made extending our travels the obvious thing to do.

Suddenly things started falling into place which would allow me to travel for longer, including the opportunity to sublet my Wellington flat.

My plans for the next couple of months include hanging out in London, visiting Portugal, Spain and Luxembourg as planned and some additional destinations including Iceland, Norway, Sweden and more of the UK.

I’ve recently been reminded by several friends in different ways that life is exactly what you choose to make of it; you can take a break or change paths or direction any time you choose, and the only one who makes such decisions is you.

Watch this space to see what happens next.