455 days on the road – The good, the bad and the badass!

As I sit in Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow Airport, I’m left to ponder the last 455 days of my life. How the hell did I get here?

I quit my 9-5 career job almost 18 months ago now without too much of a plan. All I knew is that I didn’t want to be an Insurance Project Manager for the rest of my life – kids stick to being astronauts or firemen, seriously!

I return now to the UK with a part-time job that I really enjoy and where I can work from anywhere in the world. I have started a business with a friend that has serious potential – I feel 100times more confident about this one than any other business venture I’ve tried. What I have “achieved” in that sense I feel is not important, though it is inevitable what everyone will ask. That’s ok, it’s something easy to explain and tangible.

What I have gained, is something much more. I can honestly say that I am a completely different person now to the day I left. Much has happened that has been both good and bad, but there have been a certain few moments that have been BADASS! These timeless memories are what keep me going and what drive me on to the next new experience. More often than not, they centre around shared experience with other people as opposed to just being in a place.

The hilltop beside the city of Zurich where I stood less than 24 hours after I started my trip, was home to an awesome experience but I had nobody to share that with as I was by myself at the time. It was cool, but it wasn’t badass! Staring at a truly amazing sunset in Thailand with my friend Glenn was a badass experience and the photos turned out to be something special too.

I really would like to thank everyone who I met, who came to visit me and who spoke to me online while I’ve been away. You all know who you are, so honestly – Thanks. Without these awesome people, my trip would have been 455 days of just place after place.

The time I’ve spent with other people on this trip has always been more special knowing that it was limited. My plans or the plans of others were always going to mean there would be just as many goodbyes as there were hellos. Knowing this forces us to make the most of the short window of time we have with other people. I believe this is why it’s so easy to make great friends while you travel. Everything else is just put on hold while and nothing but pure person to person interaction.

There wasn’t really a single moment that I can say was the highlight of my trip. There were several that would be good contenders: Scuba diving with 12 bull sharks (no cage), doing the 10k run through the Angkor Wat ruins in Cambodia, driving quad bikes (with flamethrowers) through the Aussie outback, a drunken adventure in Saigon with Stefano or simply watching the world cup with good friends in Malaysia.

It has been truly epic and I am kind of sad to be going back home. However, in case you had any silly thoughts about be settling down again with a “normal” life then don’t get too excited. I’ll be in the UK for 2 weeks before I move to Budapest in Hungary. Who know how long I will be there and what will happen. There are 3 or 4 reasons for choosing Budapest but the main one is that it just sort of sounds cool. We’ll see…