How living abroad made me want to travel the world

I think that almost everyone in this world loves travelling and discovering new places, and almost no one would rather stay in their hometown without seeing anything else than the four walls of their house.  At the same time, I am almost sure that all of us who loves travelling has the same (powerful) enemy:  laziness.

I am not joking! I can give you an example from my personal experience…

I have always been a kid with a head in the clouds, dreaming and wishing upon a star all days long: I wanted to do so many things, I dreamed about discovering the most beautiful and unexpected places in the world, making new friends and collecting souvenirs from every corner of the planet… Long story short my biggest dream was to be able to call the whole world a ‘home’ .

 

I am saying this as if all this was me years and years ago but, honestly, I am still that kid with head in the clouds, even though many things have changed.
I have changed my life, I have been able to transform into something that until last year,  was only a dream. I have fought the nightmare of every travel lovers, I have beaten the laziness and now I feel like I have the world in my hands!

 

But what about this laziness? As I have told you, laziness is a real enemy in my opinion because it can stop people from going for their dreams and finding the motivation to go out there and travel.

I was a victim of laziness for so many years : how many occasions lost, how many journeys I could have done alone that I had completely ignored due to laziness and fear.

I thought I was too young, too inexperienced, not ready to leave my family yet, to leave for a year abroad alone or to make summer experiences far from my small city.

I have always travelled a lot with my parents but I wasn’t ready for the big jump: travel alone and give up the comfortable life at home.

 

Are you wondering how I did it? An internship abroad for three months!

I have always wanted to live abroad so when an opportunity I simply couldn’t turn down came knocking at my door, I just went for it. During the summer after high school before going to University I had nothing to do (except relax), I felt mature, old enough and confident in myself so I applied for an internship abroad and I’ve been accepted!
Trust me, in that moment laziness and fear were completely gone and replaced by excitement!

The experience of living abroad has been WONDERFUL, in every possible way and I have tried to live it to the fullest. And of course it gave me the confidence to keep travelling, even if that meant travelling on my own.

 

I did my internship in Cork, in the South part of Ireland. From July until October 2016 I have worked for a live abroad agency there. Thousands of things happened and changed me, but I have seen the biggest difference in my urge to travel: for the first time I was independently organizing journeys around Ireland with some friends, I was doing everything on my own and, even if it may sound stupid or ridiculous, for me it was a little victory to search the routes to follow, the places to visit, the things to see, the hostels to book all on my own, without my parents help for the first time… The laziness has been beaten by my uncontrolled love for discoveries and I can’t be happier of this now.

During this first experience abroad alone (which  for me was  kind of an experiment) I think I have got “the calling” that pushed me to start to travel and never stop until I’m  too old to move.

Now I know what I want to do in the future. I just want to see all the places in the world, telling my adventures, find something new, love our planet, learn its teachings and become a better person thanks to them.

It gave me an inspiration and I think it will be my guideline for all my life.

 

At the end of September when I was almost ready to leave, my living abroad experience was coming to an end. Everyone around me in Cork used to ask me if, after three months, I was finally happy to come back home to Italy. They were very surprised with my answer. I told everyone that I was really happy to see my family again but, if it was for me, I wouldn’t come back, I would have stayed in Ireland or I would have been ready to leave for a new adventure abroad… And it was completely crazy thinking that this answer was coming from a girl who had never been alone abroad before and that, at the beginning, was also quite scared!

 

Now I am actually in Italy studying at University and writing as much as possible to keep one of my two passions alive, but I am still travelling a lot, especially after my experience in Ireland.

I am planning journeys in France, Spain and Finland by the end of the year so keep up to date with this blog if you want to know more!

 

You never know how amazing your life can turn out to be so fight the fear and give in to  the adventure!

 

D