I was scrolling through Instagram Stories yesterday and came across a post from a guy I worked with a few years back. He was a counselor at a camp I was working at and he was so much fun. He was just finishing up college and kept asking us co-workers which direction he should go when it came to his life and career. He had an opportunity to move to Boston and work as an assistant for a super powerful, affluent man. Or he could stay close to his family in New Jersey which is what he seemed to be favoring. Well, those were the only two choices I remember but the next thing I knew, he was posting pictures from all over the world. Just yesterday, he showed a friend who was feeding a baby elephant. FEEDING A BABY ELEPHANT! I'm not sure what opportunity came along for him but he made an amazing choice with options that a lot of us will never get to experience.
I'm a traveler at heart. I am dying to see the world. There are so many places I want to go, cultures I want to experience, foods I want to taste. It used to be common for people to spend a year backpacking through Europe after they graduated college and started a real job. That never appealed to me. I'm not much of a backpacker type. If I could take that backpack into a hotel every night that would be different, but I don't think that's the way it works. There were a few people in my day that would do a year abroad while they were in school. That always sounded amazing to me. These were usually people that had money though. It was likely out of reach for the majority of students.
But boy, have things changed. Not only is it no longer out of reach for most students and young people of today, it's common. And yes, I'm totally jealous! I worked with a girl a few years ago who studied abroad for a year in Australia. She had her Facebook profile picture with a kangaroo. I remember there was a position that opened up while she was overseas that likely would have been offered to her had she been home. She told me she would have never gone to Australia had she known she would miss this opportunity. It was basically a position answering phones for a radio station and I told her she was crazy to even compare the two scenarios. The time to see the world and do all the things you want to do is when you are young. Before you get a full time job that would make such travel impossible. Once you get married and have a family it becomes even harder.
The thing I admire about millennials is their desire to just drop everything and live their dreams. We kind of hate that about them too but they are living their lives right. I worked with another guy at a different job who was away when I started. He came back about a month later and I got to know him a little bit. Apparently he had been in Thailand teaching the english language. He spent about 5 or 6 months there. Do you know how he came up with this plan? Him and his girlfriend were hanging on the beach one day and one of them said, wouldn't it be cool to go live somewhere and really immerse ourselves in the culture. Really live there and see how life is lived in other parts of the world. So basically, it was a whim. A whim that they turned into a reality. I don't know the specifics of how they picked Thailand or who came up with how money would be made, but man, I admire that. The guy was kind of a jerk and I didn't work there long but that's beside the point.
These youngsters today really have it made. They have the whole world at their fingertips and they are really taking advantage of it. That is one of the reasons I want to get this business going so bad. I want to do what they do. I want to make a lot of money doing this every day, because I can do it anywhere, have my husband retire and then travel everywhere. I want to spend a month in France, another month in Italy and maybe some more time in other countries. My cousin just moved to Germany and she is going all over the continent in her free time. She is seeing the most amazing sights. I want that to be me and my husband. I also want to be home in New Jersey whenever I want. Maybe an apartment in New York so we have a place to stay when we go see a show. Or head to Florida or Hawaii for the winter months. I don't want to wait until I'm retired. And a lot of us won't have that kind of money.
This is why if you have a dream you have to start working toward it now. Start doing what it takes to get you to the places you've always wanted to go. I have a plan. Do you have one? Do you have an inkling of what kind of life you want to live for the rest of your days? Get thinking then. Then, get planning. It is time! We aren't getting any younger.
It's "I wish it were cocktail Friday" Thursday. Put some thought into what you would do if money was no object. Think about a way you can make it happen or close to what you're dreaming of. It's all in your hands! Now, go make today, your best day yet!
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