Doing what's right for you.......

So I've just returned from 4 days in Fiordland, New Zealand's largest National Park (size of Yosemite and Yellowstone combined).

Of course, I was in but a small corner of it.....

However, it is always when I am on such adventures/reflective getaways that I am able to clearly reassess what is right for me.

This time, however, I had decided that before I went away....

As some of you know, I've been studying a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise.

And been getting straight As.....

But something wasn't quite right. Whilst I don't regret it, forfeiting a 9-week trip to Nepal earlier this year to study was against my natural inclination to choose travel and rich adventure over 'stability'.

However, with 40 looming large, I was trying to 'adult'. Finally get a degree, and lock down a new career. A different spin on the midlife crisis, to be sure.

Since the semester ended, however, I've been rethinking my position......

And, as is my won't to do, I have acted.

I have withdrawn from my degree.

Instead, I have enrolled in a distance-ed Level 5 Adult Education qualification, upgrading what I currently have.

This would allow me to teach English around the world. Importantly, I can circumvent age restrictions on working holiday visas in many countries with this qualification. (With the option to upgrade further to Level 6 upon completion).

I have also enrolled in (date to be determined by the college), a certificate of commercial transport. This will provide me with all wheeled and tracked licenses (bar one) offered in NZ.

These licenses will allow me to work whenever I want, wherever I want (in NZ or Australia), for whatever length of time I want.

Essentially, it will allow me to work 3-4 months a year, and travel the rest.

Furthermore, I have arranged to do my scuba Divemaster/Instructor qualifications next summer. Again, another 'job', that will allow me to work around the world. I'd almost completed my Divemaster way back in 2000, not finishing it because I got accepted into the Navy, at quite short notice.

I have tried to fight my natural inclinations on several occasions. Each time, I feel..... Unsettled.

When I live my nomadic lifestyle, I am at peace. Content. Thriving in the wonderful new people, foods, adventures I encounter.

2018, therefore, will still be a year of study. However, until the driving courses start, I will have the freedom to go tramping (hiking) around my beloved Fiordland and beyond, tied to Invercargill only through my distance ed course and casual teaching position.

2019?

2019 will begin with an intensive period of work and saving. Once I have been granted NZ citizenship and received an NZ passport, I will be jetting off overseas.

No idea where.

The thing of it is though, I am who I am.

And despite questioning myself sometimes, I generally stay true to that. I generally do what's right for me.

Ask yourself; what is right for you? And once you can answer that question, what can - and will - you do about it?

There are consequences to my decision. I have friends and family shaking their condescending heads (although many more in full support, knowing who I am). As a result of not completing my degree, I have incurred a bill (even though I have met all requirements for the Diploma-level course).

But what price can we truly place on happiness and contentment?

We are not all the same. I do not for a moment expect all of my Agnosticator friends to understand; I know my kind of lifestyle is often viewed in America as one only pursued by hippies, snowboarders and river guides.

And that's ok.

What's right for me may not be - will probably not be - right for you.

So simply ask yourself; "What's right for me"?

Answering that - and pursuing it - will be a greater gift to yourself than all Christmases and birthdays combined.