Hear, hear @truck-life you gorgeously adventurous, courageous, heart centred, creative and beautiful woman you!! I know that feeling - Igrew up in a small town and when Jarrah was 4 and I was single I had to leave - for the first time leaving the country on my own I was scared, and was at the airport going - passport, check, bag, check, CHILD, check! with a lot ofnegative voices in my head from childhood friends saying 'it's so irresponsible, what if something happens?' etc etc and all the unspoken criticisms. My family, funnily enough, were the only ones that did support me (and two very close girlfriends who I'm still mates with to this day) and when I came home a year later, no one really asked about my travels as they were concerned with their petty lives and same old same old. So I left again, ended up meeting Jamie and living overseas, travelling alot. When I moved home (for my parents, and Jarrah's high schooling as he got a scholarship in an independent school which was so good for him) Imoved half an hour away from my old town and i've rarely seen those people since and usually will cross the road to avoid running into them if they havent' seen me - I am just not interested in small lives that haven't taken the leap into this big beautiful world of ours. It wasn't so much about physically travelling, but it does help as it expands your universe and connects you to something deeper than yourself. I try to let those days go - i felt really betrayed by people I thought were friends, and quite hurt by it. If I had the chance to advise my younger self, I'd take the words of my old German grandmother who said 'it's not WHENyou come back, it's IF you come back' - and you won't ever come back, not really, so let it go, let it go, let it go. she bought me a camera and a backpack and literally shoved me out the door. She'd migrated from Germany post ww2, had an alocholic husband she left, and could not bear seeing me alone and unhappy and unfulfilled. Bless.

Much love xx