The other day I met a girl in the coffee store who had just bought a one way ticket to Africa. Her family lives there and she had decided to go back to them. A few days later I met someone else that had decided to buy a one way ticket to Australia and both got me thinking about the idea of buying a one way ticket.
So far I’ve always bought return tickets. I knew when I was leaving and when I’d come back. If you think about it, that’s a quite safe thing to do. You’re going on an adventure and you know when you’re home again. But what if you’d just start an adventure and don’t know how long it’ll take? I find the idea scary and fascinating at the same time. I’d love to go on an adventure like that, but there are three reasons I haven’t done it yet.
Family
I would never say my family is holding me back, because they’re always supportive of my journeys and spontaneous ideas. It’s my own choice that I’d like to see them regularly. A while ago I wrote down what are the most important things for me and family and travel are the first two things. To buy a one way ticket would give me the challenge to make sure I still see my family from time to time.
Work
The benefit of having an online business is that you can take it everywhere. I can design websites everywhere in the world as long as I’ve got my laptop and a internet connection. My other job as a barista could move as well. There are coffee places all over the world, so if I’d like I could do that somewhere else as well. So what’s holding me back? I think it’s a feeling of security. Staying in the same timezone as most of my clients at my own desk and workplace feels safe. When you come to think about, that’s just the idea of familiarity. It’s not much different to work from home than to work from a tropical beach with your laptop. So I think it’s safe to cross this one of the list as reasons not to go.
Money
Last, but not least is money. You need money for a flight ticket, to stay in hotels, hostels or airbnb. Usually when I travel short-term I rent a car and sleep there or at friends’ places. When you’re traveling for a long time, that’s not really an option. Renting a car is very expensive and I’m not sure how many of my friends would like it if I’d stay for a few weeks. I think there are a few options: save money for my own car and travel with that or to stay at hostels etc. If I have enough work, then both options would be doable. The question that remains is: first saving and then traveling or just start packing and see how it goes?
Comfort zone
While I’m writing this, I realise again that it actually all comes down to being in my comfort zone. Life is relatively safe and predictable now and I think I know in general how the coming months are going to look like. On one hand that makes life a bit easier, but on the other hand maybe also a bit more boring. Since I was young I’ve always thought that I don’t want to live what I call a standard life. I want life to be adventurous. Perhaps for some people buying a one way ticket might be a crazy idea, but perhaps for me it could be that push to step out of my comfort zone again. I’ll give it some more thought and keep you posted.
