At this time of year it's customary to write year-in-review posts about what happened in 2012. These round-ups tend to be superficial — little more than chronological lists of the most notable articles and photos.
The thing is, this time, glancing back over 2012 made me reflect. It made me realise something more clearly than ever: I want to live travelling.
The first half of 2012
2012 began for us in Don Det, an island in the Mekong river in southern Laos. During the first months of the year our Southeast Asian adventures continued across Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.
In mid-2012 we returned to Europe, where we visited Belgium, Latvia and Estonia before heading to England with the not-so-small task of working and saving to plan and fund our round-the-world cycling trip.
The second half of 2012
The second half of 2012 we spent working and living in England, saving up and researching everything we needed to know about bicycle touring — as well as buying the bikes and gear we needed, or rather, wanted.
The first two months of work felt like a holiday. A holiday? Working? Are you joking? After a year and a half of travelling, discovering new things and fending for myself day by day, the security and monotony of life in England came as a genuine rest.
But after the brief calm comes the storm. Or at least, that's what I need — I can't bear to stay in one place for so long; not even cycling trip plans are enough to keep me settled. I need to travel! I need that adrenaline of the unknown! I need freedom! It's clear to me that I'm a nomadic spirit, and right now I can't see when, where, or why I'd ever want to settle down.
A trip out to the Peak District. Even the occasional escape isn't enough.
Time flies — or does it?
Looking back over the year, I noticed something else: time has flown by again. These last six months working in England have taken me back to an earlier version of myself — the life in Spain where months disappeared in a blink, years in a nap.
And while that might be "normal", it wasn't my experience during the year and a half before that on the road. While I was travelling — hitchhiking through Europe, Morocco, Southeast Asia — my pace of life was different. Each week felt like several months. Time didn't stop, but I got to savour it.
Now I have no doubts: I don't want the years to fly by. I want to hold onto every day of my life and discover something new constantly — not just when I switch on a documentary, or manage to escape for a fortnight during my annual leave. What we call "normal" is something invented. However deeply embedded it is in our mindset and our society, it is neither healthy nor ideal.
Modern society, the culture of work, labour slavery
Work 8 or 10 hours a day, five or six days a week, eleven months a year? Dedicate your entire life to working, resting, and working again until you're too old to work and can "enjoy" "what you saved up"? Is that what we call "normal"?
The only case where a life devoted to work makes any sense is one where there's a genuine vocation — where pushing yourself and discovering something new in your field brings authentic, innate personal satisfaction. The problem is that many people confuse that satisfaction with the social recognition that comes with career advancement; in which case — once again — they are living by and for work.
And what about me? Working in hospitality I enjoy it, I find it fun, I feel at home; but it gives me no greater satisfaction than knowing I've done my job the way I think it should be done. Is that enough? I don't think so.
But what about passions? What's the difference between a passion and a vocation? If both words point to desire, longing, dedication, inclination, drive — what makes us see them as so different? Why not turn a passion into a calling? Just because there's no career path?
Given that my main passion is travel, and my secondary ones are sharing my experiences through photography and writing — why not call that my vocation?
Vocation: traveller
You know what I've realised? I want to graduate in this thing called travel. I want to make my life a constant journey, build a career out of it. Nothing else matters — what matters is exploring new horizons, meeting new people, feeling alive.
Discovering new horizons every day
In 2013 I'll start cycle touring, I'll start filming my expeditions and keep sharing my experiences with you, I'll take more photographs and try to write more often.
How has 2012 been for you? What are your plans for 2013?
