We have met an incredible amount of people whose lives, or at least current fascination, is solely traveling. Spending a year passing through South America, 5 months backpacking in Brazil, their lives exploring the world. Amazing experiences and opportunities that are so far from the mainstream American culture that they escaped my concept of plausibility. How would you pay for that? How would that help you get a job? To succeed in life? How is it productive? It's a hippie mentality, but I can understand how the traveling itself is productive, that in doing and seeing things so completely different you can gain a broader understanding and appreciation of nature, culture, and international society. A greater compassion for humanity.
At the same time, I'm not sure that I could do it. One of the most interesting lifestyles I've encountered was that of our hostel owners in Ilha de Boipeba. Boipeba is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen- a very secluded, minimally populated island with white sand beaches, palm trees, and postcard-esque scenery. Pace of life is slow and relaxed, no cars on the island, and it only recently gained phone lines.
The hostel owners, Fernanda, her husband Peter, and their friend Peter, live in Boipeba for six months running the hostel and living on the beach, then return home to Belgium for 3 months to work as waiters. They work very hard for 3 months and save up their money, then they travel. Asia, Africa, wherever they want. And then they return to island life. Initially, that seemed like the dream life to me. They live in a paradise and visit other ones yearly with minimal commitments and a relaxed freedom that many people will never experience.
But is that it? What are they doing with their lives? How are they making a difference? How are they improving the world around them? Fernanda is an environmental lawyer. She studied post-grad and even received her doctorate in international environmental law, and wants to actually do something with that, but hasn't quite gotten there yet. As much as I admire their life, and I'm sure I'd appreciate it for a year or two, I can't imagine that being all there is.
I'm not quite sure yet what I'll be doing with my life. I have been enjoying my studies of IT Management- mainly because I can see the products of my efforts- writing a program to facilitate a task, or developing a system to make things more efficient. Its a way of doing something, creating something. An exciting prospect of actually contributing something, leaving your mark. I don't know how I'll leave it, I don't know what it will actually be... but committing myself to doing something, to being something to society other than just another inhabitant seems to be the bare minimum prerequisite for happiness. Relaxing in paradise is one thing, but creating your own? That's what I'm after.
It's going to take effort, planning, and probably a few less days just sitting on the beach. But this is the path that I truly want to travel- to find my way, forge my trail, and be a part of the road map rather than just a wanderer along it. Can't imagine how a few islands inspired this realization, but maybe it was the lack of roads that had me planning one.
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