✨From a Dream to a Goal to a Plan to Reality ✨ Traveling the world

Welcome to my first- blog post! I consider myself a reflective person. So my intention with the blog is to share about my travels and ways that might help you with your travels as well as a way to process my travels and life. I hope you enjoy my first post and keep coming back! 

The Dream:

In the summer of 2015, I got inspired to travel and really see the world. I watched The Thousand Year Journey, a short film about Jedidiah Jenkins' bike trip from Oregon to Patagonia on YouTube. I highly recommend watching the four-minute video. 

Here are some of the quotes that stuck with me and helped me keep my eye on the goal. 

• “The routine is the enemy of time, it makes it fly by”

• “Travel in general, it wakes up your brain” 

• “I wanted to be aware of everyday I am Alive, and I want to make it to 85 and be exhausted because I have been alive and awake every single day. And That’s the duty of being an adult. 

• “I don't want my days to control me. I don’t want my life, the calendar to be my boss. I want to control my days. I want to choose the adventure I go on. I want to choose a mind and a soul that’s wide awake. Because in a sense it makes your 100 years into a thousand.”

• “It’s a choice. You choose adventure for your own life.”

The quote “The routine is the enemy of time, it makes it fly by” spoke the most to me. Feeling and knowing that as we get older we are set in our ways and it’s harder to move away from our comfort zone, I wanted to feel alive and enjoy life. I also wanted to stay curious and learn as much as I could. 

The Goal:

I was still in university when I first watched the video, not making any money. When I graduated and started to look for a job, I looked for a job with multiple purposes. I wanted to gain experience in something that interested me and also allow me to earn and save enough money for traveling and to pay off my student loans. 

In 2019, I found a job that turned the goal into a plan. Early on in the job, my supervisor and I were having a conversation and she advised me to pay myself first before paying my bills. So, I set up weekly automatic transfers from my checking to my savings account.   Doing this allowed me to save enough money to both travel and pay off my student loans. 

Living with my mom also helped me to save money. Although living with my mom at 28 is not the norm in American culture, this allowed me to focus on my goal of saving enough money to travel the world. I did receive some judgment from others who thought I should be living independently. However, I feel that each person has to make the best choice for him or herself in order to reach a desired goal. I am grateful that my mom was supportive in my decision to live with her and save for my dream, which helped me reach my travel  goal which was 8 years in the making.   

The Plan:

There were moments I wasn't sure if I was going to reach my travel goal,  but those were short-lived. When my mom told me she was moving to China, I had to figure out my next move. I decided I wasn't yet ready to leave my job and present life. So I decided to move to the city of Chicago. This really pushed me to make the plans real. I had a one-year lease for my apartment which became my timeline. I would move out, quit my job, and whatever money I had saved would be divided between traveling, paying off my loans, and keeping money in my savings so I had some money when I chose to end my travels. It was now or never. The time to make my dream turn into reality had come.  Today marks the one-year anniversary of the beginning of my travels, to live my dream.

Rewind: 

Stephanie on July 7th, 2023. “😇Here’s to all the exciting and nerve racking feelings, the unknowns that thrill me and scare me, the people I’ll meet, and the lessons and things I’ll learn, and all the memories I’ll make. I’m excited to share how I SEE the world with you, and hopefully one day you’ll join me! 💕” As I read what I wrote on July 7th, 2023,  it puts a smile on my face knowing I am living my life fully. I think of specific times the unknowns both thrilled and scared me and the people I’ve met, and it puts a huge smile on my face. I have learned many lessons throughout my travels, and I am continuing to learn. I have created so many memories that I will never forget. 

I hope you keep coming back as I reflect on the past year and share my reality, new experiences, and thoughts about my travels. I will share the tips and tricks for your own travels, things I’ve learned, the people I’ve met, and much more. 

 I was asked before I left, “How will you know if it was successful?” My next blog will be a reflection in which I answer that question.   Keep an eye out for the next one and you’ll learn what I thought would make my travels successful and if I succeeded. 

If you have questions, comments, or a topic for me, feel free to email me at Stephanie.e.eisenberg@gmail.com