I’m feeling sick and pissed off tonight. This post is the result of sheer irritability.
Feeling lucky? Go to Vegas.
If by ‘lucky’, you mean that I worked my ass off for 2 years, spent countless hours in front of my computer reading up on hotels/hostels, reviews, destinations, looking at maps and trying to figure out how the hell to afford all the plane/train/bus trips I needed to take, saying no to socialising, shopping, and not seeing my family interstate while I saved up to go away, then yes – I guess I am lucky.
In fact, it’s kind of insulting when you say I’m lucky for being able to do all this stuff.
I worked HARD. I saved every spare penny I had. I said no to drinks with friends, lunches out, dinner dates, shopping trips – even downgraded the cat food I was buying (then promptly upgraded again once kitteh made puking on the rug a regular occurrence), bought mostly generic brand food, got rid of my car, half my possessions and left my beautiful pets in the hands of some (admittedly wonderful) people. I left my family, some of the greatest I’ve ever known, and a really enjoyable job. These things were not easy.
Were they worth it?
You betcha.
But easy? No.
You know what IS easy?
Hmm, nope! No leprechauns here.
A little over a year ago I was in that very position. Working every day, thinking it was hard, envying people who abandoned their jobs and lives in favour of travel. Thinking ‘that must be the life!’
It is a wonderful life. But don’t for a second think that luck played any part. I was unemployed for around 6 months, and spent a great deal of time travelling and generally having an amazing time. I have a job again now, and I work every day. But my motivations were different than most – I wanted to experience life in another country. I wanted to live somewhere that would enable me to travel easily when I wanted to, and I made sure that happened. That wasn’t luck.
Luck is:
When you score the last 2 seats on a cheap flight, when there’s nothing else available.
When you find £50 (hell, even £5) on the street, and there’s nobody else in sight.
When you manage to steal a candy bar off a kid, and nobody catches you doing it.
Okay, maybe not that last one.
Luck is about chance. It’s for people who don’t believe they have control over their lives. If you’re not happy with your life – do something to change it. Change can be scary, but you know what’s scarier?
Living a life of misery, and wishing you’d had the guts to take a chance.
Jump. You won’t regret it.
And you never know, you might get lucky ;)
(I promise my next post will be nicer. Or not. People seem to expect this from me now. #brandingftw)
We’re actually ‘lucky’ to be travelling – lucky that somewhere within the complexities of our genes springs the travel-phillic chromosome that slaps and snaps us out of the ‘reality’ delusion, instructs us to actively make changes to our lives and bestows upon us the courage to make the leap of faith – as oppose to the fuckwits who continue to justify their wimpiness in the face of change, lack of mental toughness and sheer cowardice as “I’m not as lucky”.
Bet they blame their genes too. I certainly didn’t – unlike members of my extended family. Cheers for giving me another reason to hate them Chloe Barnes ;)
You’re welcome, Dylan Lowe – and thank you for commenting :)
I don’t like justifications like that. “I wish” really pisses me off. If you have the capacity to be reading this blog post, and to be saying “I wish”, you have the capacity to make the necessary changes to achieve your dreams.
Perhaps you were simply lucky enough to have the confidence to give up and to RISK so much in order to travel. I myself was lucky enough to have a dad who thought my traveling was important enough for my life that he would help me to do it.
Traveling itself can also be difficult. On the one hand you have all the classic cliches of seeing other places and people etc. and that’s all true, but there comes a time when you would like to offload, to relax and sink into the place you’re currently standing, to put out roots and feel at home. When you’re always on the move – even if you’re living in a country, but retain the knowledge in the back of your mind that you’re not staying there and it therefore can not truly become your home, it can be difficult. It’s still worth it, by a long shot, and I’m missing the drifter’s life already and already considering a “quick dash” to Europe before I go back to study, but it’s also good to feel grounded again here in Australia… sadly, I just get bored quickly with that lifestyle.
Thanks for commenting Felix :)
Interesting point about being lucky enough to take the risks. I don’t really think that’s luck either, to be honest. Fear is absolutely essential for me. I’m big on scaring myself – I have to, or I stop growing. Pushing through that fear is something that helps me get to the next level of whatever it is I’m trying to achieve. I am confident in my ability to cope, but this risk-taking is more the product of sheer pigheaded stubbornness than anything else. I don’t like being told that I can’t do something. You may have noticed. ;)
I do believe that in some way you are still lucky. Obviously you worked hard to get there but many people can not just simply quite their jobs and start working hard to travel. People who have families and are unemployed for 6 months can’t wonder around and travel until they get a job. There is nothing easy or cowardly about getting up to support a family everyday. It is interesting how people suddenly look down on other people when their life is on the up and up. I think you should take the lucky thing as a compliment, enjoy your life and stop complaining about something to minor.
Hi Nina, thanks for commenting!
Anyone can start taking steps – no matter how small – to change their personal situation. You just have to want it enough. It’s not about looking down on others – I have never done that with people suffering genuine hardships, nor do I look down on people in general. It’s not my style. I have a lot of respect for people who go out and work hard to support their family, and I know how hard that is. I do however have very little patience for people who DO have the means, and yet continue to do nothing about it – whilst whining incessantly about how everyone around them is so ‘lucky’. It is to those people, whom my ‘easy’ comment, was directed.
Also, travel isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But even generally speaking, most people have the capacity to achieve their goals. It isn’t easy – hell no – but it’s doable. It took me 2 years to achieve this particular goal, and boy was I impatient. But the best things in life are worth waiting for – and more importantly, worth the effort and sacrifice needed to get them.
We’re all lucky. We’re lucky that we’re alive (see: majority of the human race since history began; death; Cuban Missile Crisis; etc.), we’re lucky we’re not this, we’re lucky we’re not that. Luck luck luck. Everything is lucky. Oooh, the sun’s come out, that’s lucky. My Twix only has 1 and a half sticks in it – that’s unlucky. On and on. Luck can be applied to everything. Which suggests to me it’s not terribly useful as a way to describe the world.
Thing is about luck is that it devalues our efforts absolutely 100%.
Let’s summarise: everything is lucky, and luck is nothing to do with us. Therefore, everything is nothing to do with us.
Frankly, this all sounds a bit suspicious to me. Where do *I* come in? What difference can I make? What happens if I sweat my nadgers off for the next year and then I’m really unlucky and lose it all? Oh hell. Well, THAT sounds like a waste of time. Instead of that, I’ll just sit here eating cold baked beans out of a can (I’d use the microwave, but what if I was unlucky and it blew up and took out York?)
Luck is a word we’ve invented. It’s not a thing. It’s an invention. Because we suck at understanding the underlying mathematical statistical reality of Things Happening In Ways That Seem Weird But Actually Aren’t.
We all, without exception, struggle like motherfuckers, in different ways. That’s life: an infinite variety of different ways to struggle. Success is struggling long and hard and smart enough to get what you want. And everyone struggles differently.
“Struggle” is a doing word. “Lucky” isn’t.
I’d rather struggle, thanks.
Mike, I heart you. Let us clasp hands and dance off into the sunshine together.
Or not, you know, whatever. I’m totally cool with that. *cries*
Incidentally, after reading your comment I was tempted to just delete my post and put your comment up instead. Passing it off as my own brilliance, of course. What? I’m not a kiss-ass…or a comment-thief. *shifty look*
I agree – traveling is not that much related to luck but maybe being resourceful, decisive and passionate about exploring something new. I am working at the moment, and don’t regret it, even though I’m a traveler by heart.
To be fair here, I do not think my life is easy neither. After all, I left my home country for the job I was offered, to moved into another country where I literally did not know one soul and in fact didn’t even speak the language. Easy is probably to be 26 and live with your parents. To work in your same town and be surrounded by the comfortable familiarity of friends you’ve got since high school (or even earlier!).
But again, I do agree. People who WANT to take the chance badly, will manage to do so. There’s no “luck” involved. Luck is just often used as an excuse of not doing what you think you want – “I’m not as lucky as you are, I mean, I am married and have kids” (again, no luck, just a choice of life).
Resourceful, decisive and passionate – you absolutely nailed it!
And, wow. You moved to Switzerland, right? That must’ve been tough, but it sounds like a pretty cool move to make. I love that. Did you end up learning the language?
Thank you for commenting Katherina, appreciate it :)
Couldn’t agree with you more Chloe. I get the ‘OMG you’re soooo lucky that work are allowing you the time to travel’ well, no I’m not actually. It’s because I work my fucking arse off and they appreciate the results…if I was a slacker they’d laugh me out of the office.
And I get the ‘where do you get ALL the money from’ – well, I don’t piss it down the toilet after a night out that’s for sure. I stay at home feeling crappy that I’m missing out on life whilst I wait for the next adventure to re-affirm my life.
Exactly! There’s nothing easy about negotiating time off work with your employer, if that’s the road you choose to take. I’ve done both – negotiated extended leave, and simply quit. When I had leave, I returned, only to quit a month later as my priorities had completely changed (travel does that to you – but it’s not something you usually get forewarned about!), and when I quit, I was absolutely crapping myself. Worth it. Totally worth it.
Thanks for commenting! :D
I feel the same way every time someone tells me I’m “lucky” to have an expensive camera setup. Yeah. I asked Nikon if they accepted luck as a form of payment, and they accepted, that’s how that works.
I didn’t spend two months working until 4am every single night just to save up for it, that never happened.
Wait…
Really? You need better contacts at Nikon :P
Haha omg. I think I love you.
I did the same thing – saving up and all that jazz. People are stupid. But hey, sometimes they just don’t understand.
PS. the same thing happened with my cat, upgraded back asap after kitty/carpet barfyness.
Duuude, what the hell is with kitty barfyness? That’s like the ultimate in childish food attitudes.
“Eat your dinner”
“I don’t wanna!”
“Eat your goddamn dinner”
“Fine!” *eats, then pukes on rug. looks incredibly smug*
“Oh, FFS.”
I’m gonna be an awesome parent.
Haha, I got told I was ‘soooo lucky’ the other day… I walked away because I felt like punching them in the nose.
They didn’t see the hours I worked in a job I hated (both in Adelaide AND in London), they didn’t count the parties I didn’t attend nor the drinks I didn’t drink, nor do they realise that when I got home I was in debt to my parents because they lent me money because I begged to go to TBEX EU before I took a (last minute and soo expensive) flight home and am now subsequently back at square one saving my ass off for my next trip, whilst studying full-time and working two jobs (and contemplating a third.) *breathes and calms mind*
Some people just don’t get it. Anyone can create this ‘luck’ if they work their asses off, in jobs that they may either love or hate and are willing to leave their lifestyle of comfort and easiness and set out. But in the end, in my opinion, it’s totally worth it to break out of your comfort bubble and just go for it. At least you said you tried! :)
What did you think of TBEX? I’ve heard many things, some good, some bad, but I always think the best part of any conference is the networking. It’s always great to put a face to a name, and meet the personalities behind the blogs – so much fun!
But yes, I agree – completely worth it to challenge your boundaries and jump out of that comfort zone :) Thanks for commenting, hope to meet you when I’m back in Oz!
I only went to TBEX EU and it was new (and new to me) but I found it really handy.
I was the youngest and I did get told that a 20-year-old could not be a travel blogger and I did have a fever the whole week (and as such missed half a day of the conference) but aside from that AMAZING!
The organised tours were really interesting (really devo I had to miss one about Christiania and another about Hans Christien Andersons fairytales) and the talks were good. I was a newbie blogger so wasn’t sure what I could take out of them. According to Dylan and Justin they were a bit similar to that of the TBEX NY one though so we drank a lot of coffee… =P
The networking WAS the best bit. I didn’t realise until about a fortnight ago that I met Lola Akinmade and Andrew (from @WheresAndrew). Since then I’ve met up with Andrew when he was in Adelaide. :) It also gave me the chance to meet some really non-scary bloggy people (it was a miracle I even agreed to meet up with Dylan and the whole time he took me down the back streets the East End I swore he was going to drag me into a dingy shop and harvest my kidneys…)
I really wanted to get to Vancouver but hey, you can’t always do everything. Going to jump in and buy a ticket for next year as soon as they are released though. Wanna beTBEX buddies? :D (I can see it now; Two Adelaide girls. Terrorising the streets of *insert host city*) Have you been to a TBEX/TBU yet?
/end rant. If you read all of this I owe you a cookie. :)
Yeah, the problem is that too many people think that luck and happiness are given as gifts, when really they’re something that, to a large extent, people need to make happen for themselves.
Too true :) Thank you for the comment!