Machka 

Who wants a conventional "job"?? I did that for a while, and then realized that spending my life working a traditional 8:00 - 5:00, 5 days a week etc. etc. for extended periods of time is just not for me.


As for making it work ...

In early 2004 a friend of mine suggested that we go on a 5-year tour of the world. I laughed and said something along the lines of "Yeah, right!" ... and then I started thinking about it, and wondering what it would take to do that ... and I came up with a 5-year plan.


First, I thought I would need to have skills so that I could get a job in various countries and the first thing that leapt to mind was teaching. I've always wanted to teach, so I started checking out those 1-week, Teach English Overseas courses ... and discovered that they were expensive, and not all that good. I discovered that if I were to go with one of those types of courses I should choose something that is at least a month long and preferably associated with a University. So then I started considering just going back to school and getting my teaching degree so that I could teach in just about any country including my own. And that's what I ended up doing.

As a part of that plan, I had to move and so I got rid of about half my things, packed up the rest and put most of it in storage. I've been living in a very small place while I've been getting my degree, with very few possessions. And I've discovered that I really don't need much to be happy.

I also had to give up my nice, stable job where I could have likely worked for the rest of my life (but that was going nowhere), and take my chances on whatever jobs came along. That's where temp work came in, and it has been great. I can work with a company for the length of my contract, and when I'm done I can go with no hard feelings. I've even been invited back to the same place several times. It benefits the company because they can get someone in to help them through a situation where they need temporary help, and it benefits me because I don't have to commit to long-term employment. I've got no regrets at all about going the temp work route over the past 5 years, and I can see me picking up temp work in the years to come. There are lots of temp agencies all over the world.

One of the things that made leaving the nice stable job easier was observing one of my coworkers. He had started working for the company when he was about 25 years old, and had stayed with the company all those years ... doing exactly the same thing for 35 years. He was saving up for his retirement when he was going to go out and do all sorts of exciting things ... but as he approached the age of 60, he started showing very distinct signs of Alzheimers, and ended up taking early retirement because he could no longer do his job. I realized that you never know what's going to happen as you get older, so if there were things I wanted to do, there was no time like the present.

And I decided to take my friend up on a part of his offer and head off on a 3-month tour to see if I even liked life on the road. There were a lot of problems and difficulties ... but I like life on the road.


My 5-year plan is now finished, and I'm off to Australia.

Right now I'm in the process of getting rid of most of my remaining things, which is proving to be a very freeing (although long) process. Rowan and I will be living very simply once I get there in an almost pioneer-like setting. I'm really looking forward to it ... it'll be an adventure! Now I don't imagine it will be easy all the time or anything like that, but I'm game for it.

The last 14 photos in this set are of the cabin we'll be moving into:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...7611337191865/

As for work, now that I am a qualified teacher, subbing is a possibility. Subbing is like temp work ... I can pick the days I want to work, and the age groups I want to work with.


We're also putting together ideas of living a transient or semi-transient lifestyle where we travel and work in various places around Australia, around Canada, and around other parts of the world. I've now got skills I can use in other countries, and so does Rowan. We'll figure it out when I get there.

If you really want to make it work ... you can.