Yeah (from US/Indiana), living and traveling. I spent a year on a "round-the-world" air ticket, then a year teaching English in Korea, and then another year traveling by bicycle with a couple 2-month stops (studying Arabic in Yemen, Russian in Kyrgyzstan, Chinese in Taiwan).

And I'm not an "adventurer" in the normal sense at all. Just a computer dork who wanted to try different things. I actually hadn't ridden a bicycle in a decade prior to the moment I booked a guesthouse in Krakow that just happened to be right next to a bike shop and I took it to be a sign. (I'd been salivating over other people's bike touring blogs for a year or two but thinking I'm nowhere near "adventurer" enough to do something like that).

Did it change my life? No, not really. I'm back in software at US big corp and raising two ordinary kids in a house bigger than I need and griping about taxes. I'm also the oldest person I know at my level at work (age 42 at level 64 msft).

Would I rather be at a higher level at work and miss out on those experiences though? Not a chance. Do I wish I hadn't come back? Oh sometimes, but oh well. Honestly being on the road is not all rainbows and unicorns either. There are plenty of days you're sitting around wondering why you're there in some guesthouse doing nothing and not back home "changing the world through technology" or something.

I mean, it's a privilege. You're presumably above average IQ and born into a wealthy country to less than horrible parents. It's not an opportunity most have. But, we all live a few years and then die. So it's a bit of whatever. Just try to spend some time doing what you enjoy. Don't die wishing you had.

Some random person once told me when I was young, "the purpose of life is to make memories". I still haven't found anything wrong with that statement.