✉️ A Note on the Voyage Journal
The Voyage Journal is a collection of personal reflections written throughout my travels—capturing raw moments, transitions, and experiences as they happened. These entries are less about guides and more about the human side of the journey.
I’ve always had a strong attitude when it comes to doing what I love in the moment. Like the 1996 Sable I had throughout high school and some of college that I wanted to “hook up (put rims on and a sound system in). Although that cost me lots of hard earned money, that I was barely even making, I successfully did so. For about a year I was rolling around the streets of Deltona, Florida with shiny 20 inch chrome rims with an amazing sound system heard miles away. While I eventually traded in the car for a newer one due to high gas prices and seeing my investments go nowhere but down the drain, it was a personal investment in my memory. I remind myself that if I really want something, I will work hard for it and get it. Today, I look back and tell myself, “Yep, I did that.” But out of the many obstacles we may face in reaching a goal, the most intimidating one is time itself. It has been almost ten years since I successfully installed those wheels on my former car and I now have different priorities.
Sunset on an island in Kiribati. (Photo Credit: Nick Hobgood)
This is what happens over time. It’s normal and it’s life. You evolve! But what if I had waited too long to get those wheels because I wanted to feel safer with money first, or because my mom told me I should wait?. Or because my mom said I should wait. I probably would have been left with an unaccomplished dream buried deep in the past. And as time moves forward I will have another priority to work hard towards. Looking back, I am glad I broke the bank and traded in my investments for nothing. It actually isn’t always about money and what it will earn you later. It’s a great memory. In fact it’s more than just a great memory.
That car was a symbol in my life that will live with me forever and prove something for my future. That is, that no matter what I go through, so as long as I want something badly, I will work hard for it, believe in myself, and I will get a full realistic grasp on it. This applies to anyone, so long as they have something to work hard toward. This could be anything from creating a foundation for a family, being your own boss, traveling to Antarctica, or like me at the age of 18, “hooking up” a car.
Somewhere Near Gallipoli, Turkey (Photo Credit: kambiyocu)
But the key factor I’ve learned along the way is that you want time on your side. Sure, not everything can be done overnight or short term. Some things do require savings, schooling, research and my favorite word from mom, sacrifice. No person should turn you away from your dreams, after all, it’s not theirs to enjoy. It can be really easy to fall off that path because other people don’t believe in it as strongly as you do. In addition, not all dreams are meant to be, at least at that moment or in that time, it’s life.
Call it destiny or whatever you want. Like trying to relocate to Miami post college from Orlando. Miami is an expensive lifestyle and at the time, I was a little more reckless and had depression issues that needed working on. In my opinion, my relocation to South Carolina instead seemed to be the perfect thing for me despite how opposite of a lifestyle it has been for three years. It has helped me grow and in fact prepared me for a larger goal I could or couldn’t have envisioned in Miami.
When it comes to time, age certainly plays a role in decision-making too. The worst kind of life I could imagine is one lived in regret because I waited too long to go after my dreams. Saying I can do it later when all I had done was wait for the “best time” or “when I retire”. Working in a doctor’s office has shown me firsthand so many genuinely kind people who do live in some form of regret for not fulfilling dreams early on in life, and now is too late. While I am fortunate to travel as frequent as I do thanks to family, people make up all kinds of excuses not to do it. In American culture, it is very easy to fall victim to this, because we are workaholics, but that’s for a different post.
Baracoa, Cuba (Photo Credit: Juan Carlos Cabañas Díaz)
Today, Saturday, May 9 2015, I asked a patient about a trip he made to the country of Micronesia that I overheard him speaking of a week prior. After he shared his travels, I told him that I had intentions of doing a Work/Holiday Visa in New Zealand and Australia before I turn 30 (Because that’s only obtainable between 19-30 years old). In transit, I have high hopes in seeing a good number of Pacific islands. Since he spent much of his life as a scuba instructor and had experience, I was curious to know if he had done the Great Barrier Reef in Australia but said he hadn’t and would love to. I told him “It wasn’t too late”.
His response, “It is too late. I’m old, always in pain, and can’t fly for more than two hours.” This is coming from a man who flew many hours to islands in the Pacific straight from the US. He asked my age, told him “26”, and he smiled with a slight gesture of sadness. In that moment, I read all of his emotions, expressions and exactly what he was thinking and wanted to say before he left the office.
This brought tears to my eyes and reminded me that life is short, and my youth is still at it’s prime and that it’s far from too late for me to fulfill my dreams. I still have all the might, motivation, and energy to work hard and go see the world in a way I probably would struggle to do in my 40’s and older. Not to forget, (knock on wood) I am in good health and still have all my bodily functions at 100%. I am not relying on routine doctor visits or not carrying around multiple prescription bottles, I still felt ready to go!
Somewhere on the Big Island, Hawai’i Islands (Photo Credit: Camilo Gaivoto)
Finally the prime reason I wanted to write this post! March 15 this year, en route to work, another vehicle turned into me at an intersection totaling my car. Thankfully, the other driver and I came out fine. Needless to say, although this wreck set me back financially, this could have set me back permanently. They say things happen at the blink of an eye and this literally happened on that day.
Now, I may be a exaggerating, but realistically, this could have turned out worse than it did leaving me only to dream my dreams and never live them. This is the one thing that I fear on a daily. With that being said, I grasp time oh so dearly close to me and plan on fulfilling my long term travel goals sooner than I envisioned. Dreams are little by little becoming a reality, and just like my old car, my future is going to be lived saying, “yep, I did that.”
Live it and live you!