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  Hackensack, New Jersey, United States
Tuesday, October 14, 2008

I've written a few entries in my travel blog and none of the entries really made much sense. I need to start over, explain where I am now, where I been, where I want to be, and how I'm going to get there. Since my other entries seemed so short and brief, I figured I would start over and summarize it all here.

Earlier this year, my parents were officially divorced according to the government (Separated for a few years now). Both found new love. At first it was difficult to understand but I can see now they are both much happier and that's all I want from them. I was living in my mothers house still with my brother, sister, and grandma. My sister was going to college in Fall 2008 which meant she wouldn't be around all that much anymore. And the house was becoming unaffordable. This lead to the conclusion that my mother will now be moving in with her new significant other. Problem with that is we lived in New Jersey and he lives in Pennsylvania (About an hour away). I had recently got a promotion in my job which jumped started my career and the highest paying position I had ever received. I did not want to drive nearly 2 hours to get to work and didn't feel all that comfortable moving in with them. At this point I knew I had to get my own apartment, I started paying off most of my debt so I can start my new apartment with a clean record. I almost decided to buy a house but with all the paperwork and the money down, it was a bit too much to handle at the time in such short notice. My girlfriend (Teresa) and I decided to move in together. At the time we were together for 2 1/2 years and we felt we were ready to take the big step. We found a great apartment in Hackensack, NJ and on July 1st, we officially moved in. Everything was moving along smoothly.

The apartment is huge. I'd say it's about 800/900sq ft. Living room and dining room is so big that we didn't know what to do with so much room. Since most of our furniture came from my mom, I didn't really have to buy much. For only two people living in this apartment, it seemed entire families with kids were living here. TV is a 50+inch projection. Video gaming on my Xbox 360 with that TV felt like heaven. Let me summarize everything we had. 50"+ Project TV in living room, 37" LCD in the bed room, 6 person dining room table, a DJ booth setup, 3 couches (includes futon), 2 PSP's, Xbox360, Wii, and other crazy electronic entertainment stuff (I'm a bit of a nerd). We were spoiled yet we wanted more. We felt like as if we needed everything.

We got carried away. During our first month in the apartment, we had bought way more then what we could afford. You never realize how many things you need in your own apartment until you actually move in. So many small things we over looked that usually we never had to worry about in our parents place. Mid August we started to realize something. We under budgeted. Bills started to come in and we were amazed how much everything was costing us. Real life hit us at this point and I quickly realized how important it is that I stay at my job since I was making the majority of the income.

My career is IT. My hobby is music. At times I get lost wishing music was my career, still not sure where this will lead me in the future. My current job is in a very large corporation. I always describe it as being in Office Space (the movie). You got the typical computer, cubicles that go across for miles it seems, overweight employee's, robotic workforce, and day-to-day tasks that don't require much thought since you do it everyday. Looking around my office you quickly realize the character most of these employee's hold. Most have been here for 20+ years, I believe this has something to do with the economy booming several years ago and these employee's were making decent money back in the day so they stuck around and it's the only thing they knew how to do, it was a safe job. Most of the employee's are 40+ and even if you do find the younger crowd, it's interns, coops, or consultants which typically don't last very long. The corporation has a very old fashion mentality to it which is the majority of the reason why most young workers do not work here. They expect you to stay here as a career for as long as everyone else (20+ years), 2 week vacations with only 1 extra week after 5 years, business casual, 9 to 5, and closed-mindedness because typically speaking your mind in this large of a corporation gets you in trouble.

So back to mid-august, I started to panic at bit. I was overwhelmed with the bills, felt useless at my job, and trapped feeling that I couldn't do much about all this. Before I continue let's go back in time.

March 2005, I went to Miami, Florida for the Winter Music Conference. I was at work when my friend asked me "Want to go to Miami today for a few days?". My heart started racing as I never did something like this so suddenly. I accepted. That same night we drove (24 hour drive) from New Jersey to Miami. What a rush! I started bragging about it for years how my decision to go to Miami was decided that same day. We had no hotel, just slept in a car. Met random people and showered in other random hotel rooms wherever we were invited. I never experienced something like this before and I felt like the happiest person in the world. That same year, I went on a Carnival Cruise line with my family for a week. Visited several islands. I felt that rush again walking aimlessly around Puerto Rico.

Fast forward a little - About a year ago I think, when living at my parents house, I was watching TV cuddling with Teresa watching the Discovery Channel or it could have been Travel Channel (Memory is a little lost). It was announced as a TV special about a man who had traveled across the globe. He had the perfect career that he always dreamed about earning a good salary. He felt he was missing something in his life though, a piece of him that hasn't been fulfilled. He made a bold move one day. He decided to travel around the globe for a full year to find that missing piece of his. This required him to quit his job and leave behind everything for a full year. Watching his journey made me smile. I slept that night wishing I could do the same but ended it with the conclusion I could never do it because I have bills, family, and a job.

So now 2008 mid-august, this idea somehow came back to me. I was in a struggle to be free from all the mess I was currently in. I decided from then on, I needed to travel. But not just ordinary travel. I wanted to backpack. This meant camping, hostels, couch surfing, everything being extremely low cost. I started to research and became fascinated with the idea. Soon it became an addiction and controlling my every move by the idea of traveling. My first thoughts was traveling for 3 months in Western and Southern Europe. Then as I continue to research it became 6 months all across Europe. Now it's 1 year all across the globe from SE Asia, South America, Middle East, and Europe. The more books, online articles, and forums I was reading, the more I wanted. I finally felt like I knew what I was doing in my life, why I am here. Now that my parents are happy, my sister is in college, my brother (the youngest now 10 years old) is doing very well in a house full of people to help him in various school work, I felt like this is the perfect time to go. Heck, I'm young and full of energy =P.

For a while I kept this secretive because I was scared of everyone's reaction. I know my family and friends love me for who I am no matter what decision I make but I also knew this isn't exactly the norm. I didn't want to seem selfish either for my decision to leave everything I have right now after getting a decent paid job. I don't like hiding things though and thought I'd tell my girlfriend Teresa since my decision was to go by myself to explore the world. I gave her the biggest hug and then told her. Well... Didn't exactly go as well as I planned it. A few days went by of questioning my decision and she started to realize the other side. She has then became way more accepting she's even planning a trip of her own after college! I cannot explain how happy I was to have someone I love very much accept this. Now the hard part, telling my parents. My grandma has travelled to a few countries and I've always thought of her as being very wise, I had no trouble here. My mother on the other hand, not so much. She liked the idea of 3 months but not one year. Of course she will always be there for me no matter what decision I make in my life. Although she still disagrees leaving for such a long period of time, she will always be there for me. My dad has changed a lot since the divorce, he realized how much more there is to life then money and objects. He started to explore more with hiking. When I was little, I did no hiking at all, barely went outside actually. I took his characteristics of playing video games all day. When I told him, he was pretty accepting of the idea. If I told him the same idea 6 years ago, it wouldn't be so accepting.

I've taken a lot of steps already to make this idea become a reality. First was to cut back on the bills. I cut off cable tv. Now we only get 13 channels. Most of my TV shows are on the basic channels and I shouldn't be watching so much TV anyhow. Now with a computer and YouTube, who needs cable anyway? Then I started to cut back in electric usage. Next was selling as many things as I can. Books, CDs, electronics, etc. Craigslist.com is the perfect place to go to sell ANYTHING. What was junk to me was worth a lot more to others. I had no idea how much junk I had. It was mostly things I don't use anymore and could do without. Doing this taught me how to live a minimalist lifestyle. I then took a huge step, I sold my car. This was a BIG deal for me. My entire life I was taught that having a car is MUST and that you NEED to have it to survive. Boy was I wrong. I live 10 minutes from my job with a car. When I take a bus it takes 30 minutes. The impact is not bad. It allows me to read more books, listen to music, connect to other people on the bus, see the environment, better workout, and being "greener".

While I continue to sell more items in Craigslist to fund my trip. I've been reading plenty of travel blogs, books, and guides. I plan to only keep a few of my clothes and a memory box. This is going to be a journey of a lifetime. I cannot explain this feeling I have about this. Best way to describe it is that it feels like the right thing to do. I have this feeling inside me telling me "Go out there, explore the world, meet new people, and be happy". I can't let go of it. Not a single day goes by without thinking about it.

This turned out to be way longer entry then I thought. I'll continue post where I want to go and more steps I've taken to make this a reality. Happy Birthday to me tomorrow, I'll be 24 years old.

Skylab World Tour ;)
- Mike

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