Graduation

Being born into a fairly traditional family, the word 'travelling' doesn't always get a very enthusiastic reaction when discussing my future with the grandparents. It's not secure or long-term enough. They want to hear words like 'career', 'marriage' and 'grandchildren'. Try mentioning Africa or Indonesia to my Grandad and his response is "Why do you want to go there? England has everything you need". My parents are a little more understanding, having done a fair bit of roaming around the tropical continents themselves. They've come to accept my relaxed attitude to life and my need for adventure. I have a feeling they want me to go away for a couple of years and just get it all out of my system.

When I come home for the holidays I always get asked the same question, over and over: "What are you going to do when you graduate?" The truth is, that is one of the scariest thoughts for me. It means leaving university and abandoning the student lifestyle of drinking, staying up until 6am and having a wonderfully huge overdraft. It is the notion of having to decide on a responsible career and figure out a way to pay off the endless debt that has piled up over three years. I usually answer the aforementioned question with "I don't have a clue". Because I am so afraid of disappointing my family. My whole life has been based around trying to please them. But in reality my happiness is what pleases them. I need to start really thinking about what I want, not what my family wants. And I know what I want - I want to escape. I want to escape Western civilization for a couple of years. I want to get away from T.V and Facebook and Topshop and my hairdryer. I want to experience life as it should be - stripped back to basics, living off the land, in a real community of people who are more like a family than a village. I want to sand-board down volcanic slopes and abseil down waterfalls. I want to live off rice and vegetables and shower under the stars. England doesn't have everything I need. It has everything I don't need.  

I just want to escape reality for a while. And it all comes in the form of an 8 page application form to teach for 6 months in Vanuatu, a group of islands in the South Pacific. I would literally be throwing myself in at the deep end. When I say 'back to basics' I mean no hot water, very little electricity, bush toilets and bucket showers. It probably sounds crazy to everyone who knows me well. I bet you can't imagine me living like that for 6 months. Most people laugh at me when I say I'd like to live on a farm one day. But this is something I have to do. I want to teach children. I want to see their smiles and their progress in whatever subject I teach them and know that I had something to do with that. And I want to push myself as far as I can go. This is the way.