We all get told that we need to get good grades, so that we can get into a good school, where we need to get more good grades, so that we get a good job and live happily ever after. I don't know about you but to me that didn't really seem like it would work out into a fulfilling life.
In 2015 I graduated high school and decided to not go to college and instead move to a smaller, cheaper town with a friend and try going down a different path where I could focus on my creative projects. I ultimately was too immature and undisciplined to have any real direction besides go to work and survive. Don't get me wrong I had a fun time and I did learn about myself but still I knew I needed to change something.
So I moved back up to my hometown, enrolled in the local state school, and convinced my parents to pay for tuition costs if I covered living expenses. I decided to major in Computer Science so that I would have some tangible skills to show off for when I graduated. Long story short, I hated it. I had almost zero social life, I was always working, and even when I had some free time my friends were usually working too. But my parents were paying for it so I felt guilty about dropping out. That was until my Mom told me that she couldn't help me anymore and that I would have to take out loans next year.
So now after two years of being very disenchanted with the two paths I had taken I decided I was going to travel. I moved back in with my Dad, worked every hour my manager would give me, and saved every penny I could. I stockpiled $4,000 and bought a ticket to Bangkok, Thailand. I had no idea what I was doing but as usual I would figure it out.
Through four and a half months of crazy adventures through Southeast Asia I kept thinking "Why didn't anybody tell me to do this earlier?" I felt like I was progressing as a person so quickly and learning so many new things about myself. Two weeks of self development out here was worth almost a year back home.
So this is my video to all the people who are like I was (and partially still am). This is why travel is not for the rich and affluent or the counter cultural misfits. It is for everyone, it is more accessible than ever in human history. Within the self development toolkit there's a lot of different tools but there's nothing quite as powerful as travel. We're thinking about it all wrong and here's why we need to reset out mindset.
