EPT
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All my life had been leading up to this moment, I wasn’t of course entirely aware when I’d travel or where I’d be travelling to. All I knew is that I’d be going somewhere and for a reasonable amount of time. I worked my way through high school reasonably studiously I suppose, but I got really sick of it towards the end, especially in the finally year. I’ve never been one who is good with dealing with the way certain people act, and I didn’t really like the way people were acting in the final year. They were too committed and too worried about things, I suppose it’s only a natural thing, but after it was all over, everyone breathes a huge sigh of relief and you go on to bigger and better things (in most cases). I finished up doing reasonably well, not great, but not terribly so that it would leave me with no options.
I got the marks to go to university but I really had no clue in my mind as to what course I would truly enjoy or what I saw myself doing. That’s usually my problem in life, making decisions and knowing when to act. Although I was now finished I was no nearer figuring out what I wanted to do than I ever was. So I made my mind up, that I would definitely defer university for a year, and start in 2007 (as I am doing now) and travel the world.
I decided that I hadn’t seen my extended family in over 12 years, and so it would be nice to pay them a visit, as I have a lot of cousins around my age who I didn’t get a chance to grow up with and really get to know. (Although I’d visited them at certain points throughout my life – only when I was a child mind you.) With these thoughts bright and fresh in my mind, I decided it would great if some of my friends came along with me, for a bit of an extended set of travels. Now the friends I had uni with, I told them about my ideas, but none of them seemed too eager to defer a year of university and weren’t too sure about their financial status and how it would work for them. I also offered this idea to two of my friends who weren’t going to be going to university and had no real plans for the future.
The three of us romanced this idea for a while, we thought of all the good times we would have, we’d work in pubs, we’d live wherever we could find, we’d share some great times together, maybe find a girlfriend over there and fall hopelessly in love. Such notions where contrived I suppose, we were saying them and hoping them, but it was more of a fantasy that it was reality. At least in their case, it all seemed to go downhill with regards to them being able to come with me on my trip. On one side my friend Russell’s dad scoffed at him when he told him about it, saying that he wouldn’t be able to pay it and he wouldn’t have a good time because of that – also that he was too young and should get a job before going off. I suppose in retrospect, this may have been true, but I don’t think anything really stops someone from doing something – they can go all out and commit to something and it will work out. I’m not saying it’ll work out all for the best, but it’ll work out in the fact that they can support themselves, that they can enjoy themselves without living the sheltered or ‘home’/familiar life that they are used to.
The ideas in our heads ran rampant and we thought this would be the greatest adventure of our lives. It certainly seemed like it would be if we entertained the thoughts we had and put them into work. I wanted to integrate with another society and live differently for a while, out of a comfort zone. However it fell through in the end. I had flights booked, an open return spaced 6 months apart and they couldn’t commit to it in time.
During this time however I had started to make more social connections, I had made a lot more friends after leaving high school and in particular ‘fallen’ pretty hard for this girl who I had met at a party a month or so prior. We made a real connection and we got along really well, I sort of screwed it up on the relationship front though. But I was almost considering pushing my travels back a few months so I could chase this. I realise now that this was a stupid way of thinking, it was just a crush, a strong one at that, but it was still a crush. It wasn’t going anywhere and it would not make a difference over my period of travels, which were looking now like they would be 6 months in duration.
My birthday is the 17th of May, and my flight was the 27th of May so I naturally had a little something a small farewell of sorts. I got so piss drunk this night that I barely remember any of it; I woke up in my bed at 11am not remembering when the party ended – some farewell. I got to the airport with my friends and family, had a ‘final’ meal with them and then left. I was feeling exciting and apprehensive but really ready for this trip. I knew it was a good many hours before I would be in London – my destination.
The flight was ok, except for having to sit next to this fat English guy for take off because he needed an extension belt and the extra leg room spots where I was sitting. After that was over I started reading an interesting book ‘The Dice Man’ by Luke Rhinehart. It would’ve been cool to live by the rules that they did in the book by the ‘roll of the dice’.
After a 21 hour flight we were almost ready for landing, so breakfast was served…I asked for some Orange juice but got handed two cans of Grolsch…I wasn’t complaining so I downed them both. I was feeling a bit weary not having slept much at all but here I was in London.
I met some girl at the airport; she had been on my flight on a different part of the plane and we got to talking, her name was Katy and she was over from Australia too for a few months, she’d just graduated – she was going to be staying in England for a little while. We got along pretty well…in our delirious states. We talked a lot of shit for a while, then we realised we had no way to contact each other, so we swapped emails instead, she was hot I was in a new country. Why the fuck not? The story is far from over now, this was just the beginning…
