Staying the Course Toward Your Dream
Recently, I have been straying from my path of being involved in and writing about travel. Instead of continuing to write about what I am passionate about, I have been looking for the easy way out. I have been looking for a quicker way to get to my goals. Now, I need to get back to my vision and my purpose.
How I Got My Passion In The First Place
I have been trying to find and cultivate my passion since I was a child. I was always envious of people who knew they wanted to be a police officer or a doctor. For whatever reason, something inside of them told them they should pursue that passion. I never really had that — until I went travelling when I was 24.
I went travelling to Europe back in 2008. My father had died four years earlier, and I had received some insurance money. My only thought was, “what should I do that my Dad would want me to do and didn’t get to do himself. The answer was to see the world. To see and experience things that he didn’t live long enough to see himself. I thought that would be my gift to him and to use that money in a way that would both honour him and enrich me. It was. It was a life-changing experience that I have been pursuing to re-create and expand ever since.
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I moved away from my childhood home soon after I returned from abroad. I had lived there my whole life, and it being an oil town and I didn’t want to work in the oil industry, I felt I had no future there. I packed up my stuff, sold my share of two houses I owned, and moved west to Vancouver.
Soon enough, the travel bug hit me again. This time I was off to Santiago, Chile, in South America. However, I was not prepared for that journey. I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t even start Duolingo until a few weeks before I left. I relied on my then-partner for everything, and eventually, I collapsed under the weight of my unplanned and unprepared circumstances. I also fell into heavy addiction at this time. I was usually a happy person on the outside, but drinking and drugging make things on the inside much worse when things are not going well. These last few months in Santiago were the beginning of the end of my partying and care-free, unplanned ways.
I ended up back in my hometown (because when you’re down but not entirely out and have nowhere to go, you go back home) and living in a friend’s basement.
My love of travel and living abroad was still alive within me, even in this dark time, as I jumped at the opportunity to live with my sister and her partner in Panama.
My sister, Katie, and her partner, Scot, started building a life together down in Panama. They had an excellent thing going, but their life was not all beaches and beer, either.
When I first got down there, my sister told me right off the bat that this was not a vacation; it was an opportunity. I was there to work and to see if I could make a life for myself down there. God bless them for trying and giving me a chance. I was still a mess, and I thought everything was a party, even though there was nothing to celebrate. I only lasted a couple of months before I had to come back to Vancouver and get help for my addiction to alcohol.
As you can see, my passion for travel has always been there, but life has gotten in the way.
Fast forward a few years, and I am in recovery, in love, and in a good place. And I am still passionate about travelling and moving abroad.
Where I Am Now
I have started a blog site dedicated to moving to Latin America called CoupleOfSunchasers. The website was my first significant move toward my achieving my goals.
I made these goals while writing a set of steps and working with my sponsor. I wrote down my hopes, dreams, and goals, and one of them was to move to a new country one day. You can read about my first steps to deciding how to move to a new country here, as well as a piece I wrote about wanting a sense of community when I move.
I was steadfast in these goals, and I still am. I am saving all the money I can after getting out of massive debt, and I am on my way to having a downpayment for a house in Panama in the next few years.
I made all of these plans and goals because I have a passion for travelling and writing. I am trying to stay the course and keep pursuing my passion right in front of me.
However, life happens.
Or rather, things like COVID can happen in life sometimes.
COVID came along and, along with tragically killing millions of people, kept us all in a box for two years. During this horrible and difficult time (many thanks to the frontline health care workers who have kept this gong show situation at a manageable level these last months), I forgot about my passion for travelling. I had a trip to Spain cancelled last October and another trip to Panama pretty much out the window this September, and that puts a damper on the fire that burns within.
I am sure many people’s lives and plans changed over these last two years. Fortunately for me, all that changed were my travel plans, and I can only write about what I know. My heart goes out to all the people whose lives were irreparably changed because of the pandemic.
What’s Next?
As for writing, I have been putting together different pieces on the weather and business and retirement. While they are good articles (if I do say so myself), they lack the heart and soul that comes when I write about travel. They lack the intensity and fire from writing about something I know and love and want to experience in the future. This is what I want to get back to.
I want to write about my plans for the future. I want to write about stories happening in the world right now that have an impact on travellers. I want to write about trending travel topics like what is travelling going to look like after this COVID mess. There are myriad travel topics that I haven’t even thought of yet and I am excited to dive into them. I hope you’ll follow me.
I have a friend who told me recently that we all have to have a little faith that things will work out for us when following our hearts. Sure, it may take a little more time to achieve financial success than other people’s get rich quick ideas, but staying the course with our dream work will be worth the effort in the end. He has faith, and now I do too. I needed to hear that. Once in a while, I need to be reminded that things will be ok as long as I stick to my plan and keep doing what I love.
I wish all of you luck in pursuing your passions.
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