I Am Experience Driven

What are you?

When we’re growing up it seems like there is only one path available to us. We go to school, attend University, get a degree then go out into the “real world” and get a job that we will probably spend the rest of our lives in.

Well, guess what, I bought into that for some time.

I went to school, got my degree, and worked in my field. To be honest there was a point when I absolutely loved that lifestyle.

I had great friends, a thriving social life, and I loved my job and my industry, but it slowly started to dawn on me, surely this can’t be it?

Surely this can’t be my life for the rest of the time I am given?

I needed to shake things up; I needed to experience a different life.

I never want to look back on my life with regret and even though I was in a career in my field of study and really enjoyed my life I needed to see what else was out there.

This led me to quit my job and uproot my life in search of adventures abroad.

While this was the perfect fit for me and sounds like a dream for some, many would strongly disagree and think that not establishing a career at a younger age is a huge mistake.

Some people are career driven; some would prefer to start a family and other people like myself value experience overall. There is no right or wrong way to live.

Each to their own I say.

At first, it never used to bother me that I was off chasing experiences whilst other people were getting ahead in their careers or starting a family at a younger age, but I have caught myself a few times wondering whether I am doing the “right” thing.

It’s far too easy to look around and compare our lives to others. We are like sponges and sometimes we absorb the goals and aspirations of other people only to realise that we are striving for something that is not in alignment with what we want from life.

Society has trained us into thinking that certain lifestyles are acceptable while others aren’t. This taints many people's dreams and they turn away from what they want in favour of what they think they should be doing.

I have been very good at knowing what I want for myself, but when I do catch myself wondering whether I should choose a different path I can’t help but get caught up in a cycle of “what if” and this doesn’t serve me at all.

It also didn’t help when I was around people whose sole intention was to make me feel bad about my choices.

At the end of the day, the only person’s opinion who matters to me is my own, and no matter how much I get swept up by the current of societal pressure and the aspirations of others, I need to remain anchored in my own truth.

That truth is that I want a life full of experiences.

I want to travel, meet new people, spend time in nature, live in different cities, towns, and countries, spend time on the road, and just be happy.

I don’t particularly care about having a career, or a family for the moment, as long as I have a job that I can stand to be at every day and it can fund the lifestyle I want to live, then I am happy and content for now.

Maybe my priorities will change further down the line, who knows? It’s never too late to create a shift.

The important thing is that I follow the path that is meant for me, even if it does eventually change course in the future.