Travel | 0. What is this shit? (Disclamer / recap of my life changing journey)

Helsinki, Finland

October 2 nd in 2011 I left for an adventure of a lifetime. I sold everything and set to the road my goal was to find some purpose in this crazy world we live in. Needless to say, I was suffering from a severe identity crisis at the time, hence the subtitle of the blog “Left everything to find something”.

My goal was to travel by land all the way from Helsinki to Singapore. I made it till Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia before my plans changed for a happy occasion of one of my university friends getting married in India. I did eventually make my way to Singapore via an alternative route. This blog is at the moment mostly about that trip. I will continue with more recent trips and events as I reach there on the timeline.

On the road, I saw and experienced things that completely changed my life and self Image. So, in that sense, I conclude the trip successful. I found not only that there are great, awesome things in the world, but also that when you’re too close to the trees, it’s hard to make out the forest (or make your way out of it). So, I’d say the best thing I got from this trip was that I could finally see what my life was about, the things I already had, things I took for granted.

Finland is a great place to live, no doubt about that. All my friends and family here, I love them so much. The government we all love to hate, public school and health care. It is far easier to bitch about your life than to do something about it. This trip opened my eyes to the realization that wherever I go or whatever I do, I am amongst the luckiest people on earth. Lucky to have the luxury of choice to drop everything and just go. Lucky to have a chance for early 30’s crisis.

So, the aftermath (or fallout). Eventually, I ran out of money. So while on the road, I started teaching English for kids in Rui’An, China. Did it for 4 months until I decided it was time to come back to Finland. Started working at my old job to pay off some credit card debt, worked for four months, then quit after a clash with my new boss (he was going to cut my salary by 15% to which I said nope). Now I am unemployed, neck deep in debt and soon to be homeless (all by choice btw). Somehow still, in the face of a seemingly hopeless situation, I have not lost faith. I have a beautiful, awesomely fantastic girlfriend back in China and I mean to go back to her. Maybe teach some more English to sustain while looking for a better pay grade job to pay off the debt.

I guess what I wanna say is that now more than ever I feel like everything will be just fine. Over-thinking and analyzing does for your life about as much good as politicians and their bureaucracy: SQUAT. The only change that is ever truly going to help you, and so the humanity, you will have to bring on yourself.

Despite all the “problems”, crises and the mood swings, everything is pretty friggin' dandy for me.