Why I’m not “lucky” that I get to travel

Define “lucky”: “having good things happen to you by chance” – Cambridge dictionary

I hear so many people constantly telling me, or others in the same situation as me, that we are “so lucky” that we get travel so much and so often. At the time I have often just brushed it off and not thought too much into it, but thinking about this recently, my traveling actually has little to do with being lucky. According to this Cambridge Dictionary definition, I wouldn’t really describe my ability to travel as having good things happen by chance.

 

Most people seem to be under the impression that traveling anywhere needs to involve a massive saving of money and many months or sometimes years, of planning. Now of course this is often true if, for instance, you are planning a big family holiday from Australia to Walt Disney World in Orlando, trust me I’ve heard aaaaaaall about it. However, what people often fail to consider before just believing we are lucky to be able to travel, is that before I travel whilst I’m working, I don’t use a lot of the money that I’m earning. Whilst most people my age back home are working and studying all day then hitting the town every night of the weekend spending all the money that just earned in that recent paycheck, I’m going on bike rides with my family, having picnics by the river with friends and using my workplaces as my social life for free. Simple. So when the time comes to travel, I simply choose places that are the cheapest to travel to and stay in hostels which are arguably the cheapest accommodation options (and most fun!)

 

When I end up staying in one place for a long period of time, I choose options such as staying with friends or family I know in that place, working, or au pairing. I’ve had two main jobs this past year; Au Pairing and working at Walt Disney World. I love the idea of Au Pairing because it has allowed me to essentially have free accommodation for an extended period of time, live with a local family so I can properly experience the culture of the place, and still have some income from it. It was also super handy in giving me a home base from which I could travel to nearby places from for a few nights in my free time. Working at Walt Disney World was similar in the way that I had a home base to travel from whilst also getting paid (although to be honest I barely got out of Orlando whilst I was there anyway because I was working so much and experiencing Disney!)

 

I wanted to share this brief post because I know how many people get put off by the idea of traveling because of the expense, struggling to get time off from work, and studying getting in the way. I hope this can help inspire someone even a tiny bit, because essentially this is my goal. If I get to experience all of this, I want others to know that they can do it too, that it isn’t as impossible as it seems. It may be a little harder for others, but just know that it is possible!

Hopefully I’ll get around to writing a bit more often and similar posts to this as well. Please let me know if anybody has any suggestions, questions or feedback!

Mel xx