Our Dream Trip: Delayed But Definitely Not Dead!
About six years ago, Mary-Ann and I came up with a plan. It wasn’t particularly unique or fantastic, but it would afford us a six-month backpacking trip. Our strategy was simple: maximise savings by increasing our income and cutting costs like our lives depended on it.
Two years into our plan, we had saved enough for our dream trip. All that was left was to quit our jobs and buy the plane tickets…. Or so we thought…
Like many, our travel plans were quashed by the pandemic. Two years of saving for our ‘Instagram-worthy’ adventure suddenly vanished into a lockdown-induced limbo. We were sure that with our amazing trip, we would have won the hearts and minds of all those who bore witness to our metamorphosis into a pair of adventurous, online butterflies.
But instead, COVID rained on our parade and left us wondering if we would ever get the chance to burst from our chrysalis again…
However, what if I told you the pandemic was actually a good thing for us? What if I said we weren’t ready to take the next step back then. We were still just slightly slimy caterpillars, trying to pick the perfect leaf to spin our cocoon with.
The Reality Check
Sh*t happens. But when it does, it can give a you new perspective on what you thought you knew before… I mean, have you heard or read anything on social media that says you should stop and think about your life decisions before you buy your plane ticket to Bali? I hadn’t before, and even now, you have to really root around the obscure corners of the internet to find honest accounts.
I hate preachiness, and I am acutely aware that just a few paragraphs into this blog, I’ve started doing it myself. But before I stop and move on, just ask yourself this: Is trying to mirror what you see online actually a good idea, or is it just another manifestation of the instant-gratification culture that we live in?
Because, honestly, that’s what it was for us. We just wanted to feel as good as the posts online looked, ASAP!
The days and weeks following the realisation that our adventure wasn’t going to happen were rough. We found ourselves green with envy towards those who had left just months earlier and were now ‘trapped’ on a tropical beach somewhere. Constantly comparing ourselves to what we saw online fed a weird gluttonous appetite for dissatisfaction and discontent… It actually felt kind of good to say, “we aren’t happy because we don’t have what they have,” as if it were a diagnosis or a justification!
A New Perspective
To be honest, I think we all know how widespread this issue is in society, but that’s another blog, maybe. For us, something had to change! We needed that new perspective I mentioned earlier.
What about doing something else? Something boring, something upsettingly sensible, and comparably low-risk. Well, low risk compared to quitting a job and buying a one-way ticket to the other side of the world, anyway.
So… We bought a house.
hate the stupid fibreglass moulding… It keeps coming off!
All those glorious piles of money we had gathered through scrimping and saving were gone in an instant. In fact, a rather large chunk of it went to those damned solicitors. God, I hate those guys. Their fees could have paid for a couple of weeks in a swanky hotel in Thailand. Grrr.
Quite the U-turn, you may notice. And I think that is the crux of what I hope to explain in my blogs leading up to our second attempt at our ‘big trip.’ In other words, where we once saw our ‘normal’ lives as shackles that we had to shake loose to become like the guys online, now we realise that first we need to turn those ‘normal’ shackles into a nice pair of furry handcuffs and have some fun with them.
… Perhaps, that’s a poor analogy, let me try again. Ahem…
Where we once saw our ‘normal’ lives as shackles we had to shake loose, we realized that changing our perspective a bit meant we could leverage the ‘normal’ stuff to make it as fun as possible while removing most or all of the risk. Then, still go on our adventure. It’s just not as sexy or romantic as the ‘Instagram-worthy’ metamorphosis.
Be A Moth!
You could say that we became more like moths than butterflies. Did you know there are 114,000 species of moths but only 18,000 species of butterflies? Moths are way more prolific.
Or even better, be a bald moth like me. Is that sexy enough for you? Feeling inspired?
Well, if you do, then I truly hope you stick around for future blogs. I want to prove that the unrealistic and unhealthy stuff we see on social media is NOT the only answer. We can’t go on judging our success and ambitions based on the deeply skewed and romanticised social media black hole that is consuming people like another kind of virus.
So, we will be leaving for our six(ish) month trip in October 2024. It’s four years later than planned, but we are so much better equipped now. Follow this blog to find out how we did it, where we are going, and of course, the stuff a bald guy gets up to while abroad!
Also, check out the ‘About Us’ page to get to know us a bit and take a look at my Instagram: @TheDyerDump to see some of the trips we’ve been on to date. It’s also where I was blogging originally… when I didn’t know that blogging on Instagram is not a thing – whoops!
Stay bald folks.
Toodles,
Jack
