From traveller to travel agent
Well its been about three weeks now since I made it back to Australia by boat (does that make me a boat person?) and I've achieved more or less nothing. Unless re-watching all of Friends can be considered massively productive.
But after so much time spent in the pursuit of adventure and experience, I figured it was ok for me to have a little down time to recover. Despite what you may think travelling, and especially for so long, is inherently super exhausting. And going from spending every day for 5 months on the go and flittering from one super amazing place to the next, I was more than happy to spend a decent couple of days enjoying life in my pyjamas.
And I really did go to so many amazing places - I could spend hours telling you all about where I went that I haven't already mentioned. Since my last travel blog post I went to Istanbul in Turkey, back to London for a completely amazing time at the British Museum Summer School program, a few weeks spent wandering through the UK and Ireland, a week in Singapore, and finally two weeks with my family on a cruise. Full-on sort of falls sort as an explanation of what that last month and a half was like. It was mental.
Plus I got a tattoo. Teehee!
Now that I am finally back, and ready to plunge back into the world of...something, the question sort of came back as to what next? Now that I've gone on my extended trip and seen a great chunk of the world (in addition to many other years of travelling), what was I going to do next? A job was obviously on the cards but what? Where?
The unfortunate thing is that jobs in Archaeology in Australia are sort of few and far between these days, a lot of the paid work and subsequent research grants got so tied to the mining industry that when that went into a sort of remission - so did opportunity for me and my colleagues. It's not ideal for any of us, and morale is particularly low, but at least I was luck enough to leave before things started to get really bad (sorry to everyone who didn't!). I used my sudden enriched freedom to go travelling, as you know, and now that I'm back and things aren't improved in archaeology I needed to come up with a new plan.
I spent a lot of time this year thinking about it before and after my trip - ever since I was in the US in January to be precise. But it was a real tough one - did I go back and study again? Did I move overstate, overseas? Did I change careers?
I considered a new degree, I considered a masters or phD, I considered moving away and I even applied for jobs away - but the issue came from logistics, of course. I probably will go back and study someday, because I love to learn, but I decided against it for right now since I had barely been out of the classroom for long anyway. Moving away - and most likely overseas because opportunity in archaeology in Australia is just that bad right now - was my next option and one I'd have preferred, but the logistics were so hard. The most feasible plan appears to already be somewhere before applying for a job, especially in the UK (where being an EU citizen allows me to work). It's not as easy as I thought to move over seas for a new job from the other side of the world. Still want to do it sometime, but whilst my bank accounts are still smarting from their recent overtime it doesn't seem to be the best option going.
And so I turned to one of the things I know I am definitely good at (besides writing, cue arrogant writer syndrome): travel.
Heck knows that I love to travel. I love to plan it, talk about it, rearrange it, dream about it and otherwise fit any form of travel into my life where possible. I even love to travel write - there hasn't been one trip I've been on since I was about 13 that I haven't kept a journal. So why not try something different and join the lucrative world of travel?
So, I did. I start in 2 weeks, and I am so excited about it.
Sam xox
But after so much time spent in the pursuit of adventure and experience, I figured it was ok for me to have a little down time to recover. Despite what you may think travelling, and especially for so long, is inherently super exhausting. And going from spending every day for 5 months on the go and flittering from one super amazing place to the next, I was more than happy to spend a decent couple of days enjoying life in my pyjamas.
And I really did go to so many amazing places - I could spend hours telling you all about where I went that I haven't already mentioned. Since my last travel blog post I went to Istanbul in Turkey, back to London for a completely amazing time at the British Museum Summer School program, a few weeks spent wandering through the UK and Ireland, a week in Singapore, and finally two weeks with my family on a cruise. Full-on sort of falls sort as an explanation of what that last month and a half was like. It was mental.
Plus I got a tattoo. Teehee!
Now that I am finally back, and ready to plunge back into the world of...something, the question sort of came back as to what next? Now that I've gone on my extended trip and seen a great chunk of the world (in addition to many other years of travelling), what was I going to do next? A job was obviously on the cards but what? Where?
The unfortunate thing is that jobs in Archaeology in Australia are sort of few and far between these days, a lot of the paid work and subsequent research grants got so tied to the mining industry that when that went into a sort of remission - so did opportunity for me and my colleagues. It's not ideal for any of us, and morale is particularly low, but at least I was luck enough to leave before things started to get really bad (sorry to everyone who didn't!). I used my sudden enriched freedom to go travelling, as you know, and now that I'm back and things aren't improved in archaeology I needed to come up with a new plan.
I spent a lot of time this year thinking about it before and after my trip - ever since I was in the US in January to be precise. But it was a real tough one - did I go back and study again? Did I move overstate, overseas? Did I change careers?
I considered a new degree, I considered a masters or phD, I considered moving away and I even applied for jobs away - but the issue came from logistics, of course. I probably will go back and study someday, because I love to learn, but I decided against it for right now since I had barely been out of the classroom for long anyway. Moving away - and most likely overseas because opportunity in archaeology in Australia is just that bad right now - was my next option and one I'd have preferred, but the logistics were so hard. The most feasible plan appears to already be somewhere before applying for a job, especially in the UK (where being an EU citizen allows me to work). It's not as easy as I thought to move over seas for a new job from the other side of the world. Still want to do it sometime, but whilst my bank accounts are still smarting from their recent overtime it doesn't seem to be the best option going.
And so I turned to one of the things I know I am definitely good at (besides writing, cue arrogant writer syndrome): travel.
Heck knows that I love to travel. I love to plan it, talk about it, rearrange it, dream about it and otherwise fit any form of travel into my life where possible. I even love to travel write - there hasn't been one trip I've been on since I was about 13 that I haven't kept a journal. So why not try something different and join the lucrative world of travel?
So, I did. I start in 2 weeks, and I am so excited about it.
Sam xox
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