I've had the desire to have my own blog for quite a long time. I like writing, but most of the time I kept it for myself. It is a big step for me to start sharing publicly my thoughts.

Now I have the perfect excuse to create the blog, since I'm going on a long trip, completely away from my comfort zone - I have a one-way flight booked for the 21st of March that will take me to Kathmandu. I'm planning to stay in Nepal for 3 months and then move to India where I might stay for around 1 year, if I get the visa that I'm going to apply for. After that, I'm keeping it open - I might go to Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia is a possibility. I will make these decisions along the way.

The idea is to participate in volunteering experiences and travel in between.

What led me here?

I've worked too many years in the corporate world, but soon realized it was not for me. I let myself stay there because I didn't know what else to do professionally. After more than 10 years in this field, I decided to quit my job, even before knowing what else to do. I just felt I had to change something, as I was not happy with the way my life was unfolding. Back then in 2015, I was living in Budapest and moved back to Porto. I ended up taking a 4-year course of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and worked in this field for some time.

But then life took unexpected turns (Covid and moving to different countries), and in 2022 I made the decision to go back to Budapest and got a job there. I went back to Finance for one reason  - I was not finding my way financially and felt I needed some financial stability at that period of my life.

My experience on this job was better this time. I only had to go to the office twice a week, working from home the rest of the time. It gave me more freedom for a while, but never felt any kind of passion for my work. After approximately one year, the work became too stressful - I was doing too much overtime for several months, and that's when I started thinking: what the hell am I doing here? I couldn't imagine myself continuing to work in Finance. I felt I would be wasting my life if I stayed there any longer.

I know it would have been very 'comfortable' to stay there - I was well paid and would probably have had an 'easy' life. But that was not how I intended to live the rest of my days.

I started thinking of what to do with my life... again. This time I thought I needed to really get out of my comfort zone, experience the world out there, get to know different cultures, expose myself to challenges, in order to keep growing as a human being and stay open to whatever opportunities come up on this journey. And I felt it was now or never. Despite my fears, I knew that if I didn't do it now, I would keep delaying it forever.

I have no idea where this journey will take me, but I know I have to take it. I'm a bit scared but very much excited at the same time. I feel alive.