It has been 3 years since I decided to take my time to see the world in 2016. Unlike most people who started it since they were young or when they just graduated from school or university, I begin my journey when I was 29 years old. As a person who came from a developing country, I face more challenges compared with those who were lucky enough to be born in a first-world country.

Life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, so does travel. Amidst my enthusiasm to keep traveling, I heard some unpleasant opinions about my current lifestyle and passion. I reckon 3 things annoyed me the most, and their words are related to things I wrote on the intro. Those unpleasant opinions doesn’t necessarily mean negative, they just have different perspectives than mine. Their lives are completely different than mine so I kind of can understand why they think and say so. But still I feel annoyed and bothered, especially since they think what I thought and did was wrong. Here are the summarize :

1. ” You should stop changing your job as it’s gonna hurt your career “

This dude is very lucky that he works for a very big corporation and it has sent him to work and live in some countries, thus he can travel very often. The Japanese guy told me a few times that I should stop to change the job and should have a stable career. The word “stable” felt punched me right on my face. Of course I long and crave for stability, too much sometimes. But I have priorities, only with more limited options, so I gotta make a choice.

Let me explains here. I live in Indonesia and it’s hard to take a month off work to travel as we only got 12-14 days annual leave. It’s also very uncommon to take a month, even unpaid leave, just to travel, according to my culture. It does sound crazy. Who will leave a stable job, career, and income just to see the world?. Taking 2 weeks off on Idul Fitri day sounds more reasonable and responsible, doesn’t it?.

But I want to see many places and 2 weeks is far from enough for me. I want to have a slow journey so I can immerse in the culture and enjoy every experience. I thought about it for quite some time and then decided to leave my job. I was 29 yo and already had a lot of work experience. It wouldn’t be hard for me to find another good job once I’m done with the trip, and I don’t have to start from the beginning too. What I mean is I wasn’t being impulsive leaving the job just because I found a new hobby. I had considered the advantages and disadvantages of my decision. I had even thought about how I still can make money by being a digital nomad. Of course, by taking a few years off work I will lose some opportunity too but I also gain some other opportunity, skill and experience. Financially wise, I was doing better than when I worked in the office, even though I didn’t expect that and was mentally ready to live a more humble lifestyle.

There is one quote I always remember, ” you’ll only regret the things you don’t do and never the things you’ve done”. I had never regret taking that decision. I have grown as a person and the jobs that I created while I was living abroad have also proven to help me to survive during the pandemic. The next question is, Will I keep change the job after the pandemic over?. Umm I have reached nearly the end of my long vacation and my clock is ticking… I feel it’s time to be back to working seriously and have a stable career and life in a place, besides travel for once or twice in a year.

2. ” Does someone or your bf pay for your travel expenses? “

This one is very irritating and sounds very shallow. Some people asked me about this in person, but I had also received this curious question from a stranger on Instagram. And most of them are men. Oh, c’mon, girls nowadays can do things better than men, don’t you know?.

It’s very irritating and bothering me at the beginning but now I have learned to ignore it. I think it’s not very hard to travel frequently if you are good at doing your job, making enough money, and can manage your finance well, including saving some of it for security and emergency. Girls in any part of the world don’t need men to finance their travel. They also can travel safely by themself and do other things independently. Whenever someone asks this, I take it as an insult to my character, intelligence, and hard work.

3. ” I think those who travel frequently and postpone to work are lazy. Instead of traveling we should work hard and collecting assets “.

Of course we have to work as responsible adults. But we don’t live just to make money and collect material things. I do love material things, but there are other things in life that worth equally with a house, car or stocks. Travel can help us to grow as a person, broaden our horizons, train us to be more empathetic and tolerant human beings, and many more. My point is, the experience that we can get from travel is priceless and it’s worth way more than money. Moreover, travel has helped me to learn a few life skills ranging from foreign languages, decision-making skills, being independent, being more creative & brave, communication skills, etc.

There is always time to go back to normal life and working hard to prepare our future. We can buy a house or a car anytime. It won’t go anywhere! But we can’t get all those lessons and unique experiences if we only stay in one corner of the world.

Curious about my adventures in Europe and America ?. You can click the following link to see my traveling video that has been aired in Net TV :

1. Desa Hallstatt, Desa dengan Arsitektur Klasik di Pinggir Danau
2. Imutnya Park Guell, Dunia Fantasi Ala Gaudi di Barcelona
3. Ada Turki Mini di Bosnia Herzegovina
4. Nyobain Makanan Khas Bosnia, Kaya Rasa dan Pasti Halal
5. The Bean, Seni Kontemporer yang Ada di Film – film Hollywood

Want to help support my travel? Help me to visit 50 more countries and write more travel stories & guides by donating here

Watch & subscribe my daily vlog in America at my youtube channel : Dada Kimura