In January 2019 I decided to quit my job, travel the world and move to Australia, it was a massive undertaking for me and something that I feel I was always meant to do in some way. I had always wanted to travel to Australia after looking at pictures of my Dad living there in the 1980’s but I’d never really wanted to go to so many places all at once. That was until I got older and began visiting much more varied places than the resort style places I’d head to with my family as a child (which are still great by the way, but were no longer my cup of tea at the time).
In my early to mid-twenties, I decided to try to go on trips that were more about the experiences than relaxing, I’d headed to California twice, Japan twice and a few other places sporadically including closer to home trips like France, Crete, Scotland and Wales. After going on these trips, I started to appreciate the smaller things like road trips, making friends with local people or going off the beaten path more often. Sometimes I would just pick a town or city, or even a direction and just head there (which as a great experience in the right country like Japan for example, you’ll see a lot trust me!).
I’ve been back in the UK for around two and a half years now but have never really gotten around to talking about my travels properly, like why exactly I decided to go, what I learned along the way and what the end result was for me. So while I don’t really expect anyone to read this I think if I can inspire at least one person to do what I did or make at least one person think this ‘tale’ was worth reading then I’ll be happy. More than anything I think this is just a good a time as any for me to just collect my thoughts and reflect on what was generally a life changing experience for me.
So what’s the context? why did I quit my job for a trip? I guess you hear about these kind of stories quite a lot online and there is always some crazy story along the way like ‘THIS GUY QUIT HIS JOB AND NOW TRAVELS THE WORLD IN HIS CAMPER VAN WHILE MAKING MAD $$$$’. My experience isn’t quite like that I can assure you, although it certainly sounds fun!
In 2019 I was still working as an Emergency Call Handler for Northamptonshire Police; I was coming up to my fourth year with them and at this point it’s still the longest job I’ve ever had. It was an extremely rewarding job when things went right. It was full of amazing colleagues who I honestly respect so much for being able to continue to be ‘that voice’ on the end of the phone who will be there for you in what could be the worst time of your life. It was rewarding but it was also, as you can imagine quite taxing if you’re not of the best frame of mind.
Think about a 12-hour shift, now times that by 4 days and think that most of those calls you’re taking are either people in absolute hell or very ‘trivial’ matters that really didn’t require the Police’s time, there were rarely positive calls in that job so sometimes you had to hold on to the end result of helping someone in need and hoping you made a difference. Upon reflection, regardless of my frame of mind I just don’t think I was cut out for it overall and my hat goes off to anyone who does that job, they are all amazing.
I had been struggling mentally with numerous things in my life during the two years prior to leaving the role. I was in a longer-term relationship in which I was supporting the other person a lot with their own mental health, I was working in a job that as I’d mentioned was quite difficult for my own mental health. Now that I think about it the role I had with the Police became more about dealing with a lot of peoples mental health issues because the services that were meant to be there for them were so stretched that they came to us. As well as all that I had my own issues that I just kept pushing down because I was there to help the public and also my Girlfriend at the time, I saw myself as a crutch for people when actually they didn’t need a crutch, they just needed someone to listen to them and help where they could.
To cut a long and more personal story short I didn’t get the help I needed until I was offered counselling through my work (which is such a fantastic thing for an organisation to offer), the sessions were limited but they really helped me feel like I was dealing with my own issues and taught me a lot of tips that I still use today. I would recommend a counselling service to anyone should they have the need for it and of course the funds to pay for it, it really does help in my experience.
The end result was seeing that actually my career path despite the good salary, was not for me and that it was not working out with the person I was with. My decision to end the relationship was probably one of the hardest choices I had to make and while there was a lot of anger at first, I have nothing but respect for that person and hope they are doing well. Career wise I stuck it out for a roughly half a year longer, working on myself at the same time and I feel I did improve myself in some aspects but had a long way to go.
I thought about what my next steps were and decided that if I no longer had to save for a potential house, kids etc then I may as well do what I always wanted to and travel the world, with the aim of eventually working in Australia like my dad had done. This gave me some motivation to work again save my money to fund the trip. I was still very much depressed deep down but felt like this was some kind of a light at the end of the tunnel which sounds so cliché but it was true!
I can remember thinking about all the places I could visit along the way before living in Australia and the excitement of seeing something new began to really grab me, I was totally free. I definitely thought of this ‘trip’ as a way I could get a fresh start and reinvent myself and so spent weeks planning routes, looking at flights and deciding on dates. Finally, I decided that January 4th 2019 would be the day I left the UK, in the back of my mind I kind of hoped it would be for good.
I worked my shifts up until late November 2018 and decided to use December to get things sorted, see friends and just relax before I left the country. I remember so many people asking ‘who are you going with?’ and the shock on their face when I said I was doing it alone. Perhaps because they thought it was dangerous or perhaps because they knew I was an anxious person who wouldn’t do very well in that kind of situation, well either way there was no going back for me at that point.
So, with that all out of the way January rolled around. I was unemployed by my own choice, still somewhat depressed and still not over my own decision to be single really, but despite all that I was so excited to see what was going to happen next. My journey to reach Australia would begin in Germany (Berlin) for 4 days, South Korea (Seoul) for 5 days, Japan (Osaka) for 5 Days, Hong Kong and Macau for 6 Days and then Live in Australia for as long as the VISA would allow me to, with my starting point as Melbourne and the aim of moving around if and when I needed to.
I remember having an early flight to Berlin and getting a hotel at Heathrow the night before, my mum dropped me off and although she was happy for me I could sense that she was worried and in hindsight I’d be worried too if my kid was traveling alone across the planet for up to a year. I can remember feeling a bit aimless at the airport hotel the night before my flight and just wondered around until It got late, eating a subpar meal at the hotel restaurant and watching some panel show on either BBC1 or Channel 4. I couldn’t sleep!
I’ll tell you now have never EVER thought that everything happens for a reason, but I definitely believe some key points of your life do. For me this trip would change my life in so many ways, I would become a much more confident person, I would finally be comfortable being myself and I would meet and marry the love of my life. I think before I go into my travels I want to say to anyone reading this, if you have anything you’ve really wanted to do just do it because you may not ever get the chance again and it may change your life in so many ways.
I think it’s quite cliché to say ‘Oh I’m going to go travel and discover myself’ but actually, I think travelling totally alone across multiple countries really does help you discover the kind of person you really are. It brought me out of my anxiety so much and at times dropped me right back into it but overall it taught me a lot about myself, the world and life itself.
Thanks for reading and check back soon for the first parts of the trip Berlin and Seoul!
Interviews With You! By Lewis Jane 