To most people, reaching a place in your career where you finally feel successful is something that they aspire for and will go to great lengths to achieve. But, to the life-long traveler, this can be a scary and confusing time in their lives.
I would say that at this point in my career I am reasonably successful. I work as a Senior Art Director at one of the top fashion magazines in New York City and to make matters worse I really love my job and the people I work with. Most people would think that this is an amazing achievement and won’t understand how anyone could complain, but for me it makes things hard. Let me try and explain.
For my whole life, I have lived by the notion that at any second I can drop everything to go and travel the world… and that is what I have done up to this point. I have lived, worked and traveled the world for over 6 years but something has changed in the past few. I have reached a point in my career where it is suddenly hard to just walk away. So what do I do now?
When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose, so the decision is an easy one. When you have everything, you have everything to lose and your decision becomes incredibly complex! At the moment this is one of the things that weigh’s on my mind. I know that in many ways traveling is what makes me who I am and that desire to go into the unknown is one of the reasons I am good at my career. I know I am not alone in this feeling; there are a lot of us out there. The older you get the more you feel the pull of society telling you to keep your well paid job, but if what makes you good at that job is your sense of adventure and lack of thought for the future, you come to a very difficult crossroad.
I know this sounds incredibly ungrateful but it is hard to switch off. I do not have the answer to this right now; it is one of the challenges you face as a life-long traveler.
