Posts Tagged ‘decision’

12
Jan

A Life-changing Decision?

   Posted by: Chip    in Travel Life

***Inspired from a conversation with my good friend Paul about his parents’ unexpected journey.

When I was still unsure about my ability to adapt to Violet’s place in Kawangware, my friend offered me to share with him his 2 bedroom apartment. I agreed, but then changed my mind because I wanted to challenge myself at Violet’s. Few weeks later, he was killed in the same apartment. Somebody broke into his house and strangled him to death. I was extremely upset, and couldn’t help asking myself what would have happened if I had moved there. Would I have been able to save him, or would I have been murdered myself?

Life is a strange combination of possibilities. Every decision you make affects your life in one way or another. Some decisions change your life for few hours, some decisions change your life forever. There are no right or wrong decisions, as nobody can travel back in time to try out the other option to see how it would turn out. But there are interesting and boring ones. There are decisions that will take you into unexpected journeys that you could never imagine even in your wildest dreams.

And, the journey that I’m on today is something that my 5, 10 or even 15 year old self could never imagine. Looking back, I’m grateful for every decision I have made.

It was when I decided to leave my hometown to go to high school in Hanoi, against my family’s wishes. It was a decision that made me struggle with the relationship with my family, but also a decision that changed me from a pampered kid to an independent girl who could support herself at the age of 15.

It was in Hanoi that I decided to organize Free Hugs campaign, the campaign that led to my first arrest, and almost got me expelled from school. Yet, it was also the one that introduced me to many other social activities which finally gave me a job offer in Malaysia.

It was when I quit my job in Malaysia that I started this trip. The job in Malaysia allowed me to travel to different countries. I realized that traveling isn’t that expensive, globe-trotting isn’t that impossible. I decided to give it a shot.

Had I not made any of these decisions, I would still be a shy country girl, computer illiterate, unable to speak English, afraid of the outside world. I would probably be studying at a university in Vietnam to become an accountant. My parents would probably expect me to get married as soon as I graduate to a nice boy from my hometown. I would have never traveled to Middle East. I would have never met all the awesome friends I have made. I would still believe that people in Africa are black because they get sunburn. And I would be reading about somebody else’s traveling and bitterly thinking that they must be awfully lucky to be able to do so.

It surprises me a lot when I ask people what decision has changed their lives, they can’t think of any. They always do the same things they are supposed to do: Go to school –> compete for a seat in universities –> look for a job –> get married –> have children –> grow old –> wish that their lives were different.  They avoid crossroads. They overlook opportunities. They refuse to open locked doors. You could pretty much tell how their lives would be in the next 10 years. Well, there is some comfort in stability and security, but I would hate it when I grow old and tell my grandkids about my life, they just go like: ”Aww, I don’t want to be like you when I grow up.”

So, how about you? Have you ever made a life changing decision, or has your life always been the same as how you and other people expect it to be?

And as Randall Munroe, the founder of xkcd said:

“Take wrong turns. Talk to strangers. Open unmarked doors. And if you see a group of people in a field, go find out what they are doing. Do things without always knowing how they’ll turn out. You’re curious and smart and bored, and all you see is the choice between working hard and slacking off. There are so many adventures that you miss because you’re waiting to think of a plan. To find them, look for tiny interesting choices. And remember that you are always making up the future as you go.”

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10
May

Full time traveler & Part time writer

   Posted by: Chip    in Travel Life

It might take years to find out what you want to do, but it only takes few minutes to find out what you don’t.
One day, you will have to wake up and talk to yourself: “Enough is enough”. Life is too short to be wasted on doing what you don’t like.

So I quit my job.

Everybody asks what my next plan is. To be honest, I have no plan. I want to travel, and to finance my traveling, I need to find a freelance job. The only thing I can think of is writing. I started writing a long time ago and have had my writing featured on some major newspapers in Vietnam. When my friend created a fanpage for me on Facebook, for some reason, he categorized me as a writer. But I already quit it. Writing came to me so naturally that I had never taken it serious. However, just few days ago, I talked to a stranger visiting my blog and he asked if I was a writer: “Your writing is very strong. You must be a writer.” It made me think that maybe I really have a thing for writing. Sometimes you spend the whole life searching for what you do the best, while the whole world can see it right away from the first time they talk to you.

Full time traveler & part time writer, doesn’t it sound good? Yes it does, but well, whenever you come up with an exciting plan, reality will come up with thousands of very unexciting reasons to make it not happen.

I soon realized that the laptop I was using belonged to the company and I’d have to return it after the resignation. No computer, no writing. My own laptop and camera were given away a long time ago and my phone got wasted (I thought of using the word “fucked up” at first then I realized that I have to sell my writing to traditional media so I’d better be nice) because of water festival in Laos. And now I quit my job, I won’t get my salary to buy any of these. I didn’t even have a proper home to come back and rest for a while. I’ve been away for so long that my parents’ house doesn’t have a room for me anymore.

So what?

The worst scenario is that I’ll have to come back to Vietnam jobless, homeless & money-less. I’ll have to find a stable job there then. Can it kill me? No. Then why don’t I give it a shot?

I spent half of my money on a netbook. A netbook might not be powerful as a laptop, but it’s enough for just writing, IMs & browsing web. Its weight and design are also perfect for traveling. I can stick with my phone for a little while. The camera thing isn’t that easy. I need one with acceptable quality to take good travel shots and it’s not cheap. I don’t know how, but I know that I’ll manage to get one on the way.

In the next 2 months, I’ll be traveling around Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Macau & China. If things go well, from October to March next year, I’ll travel around South America.

Even though there are a lot of obstacles awaiting for me, I feel quite happy that I finally made a move. I don’t know how far I can go, but how would I know if I never tried? The problem will be solved,  the plan will be made and the path will be taken. Keep my fingers crossed!

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