What If You Hadn't?

Curiosity leads you down interesting roads. You may become very good at things that most people don't really know about. But that's what leads into interesting experiences that most people don't have. Ideally, you find other people who also love it. Friends, lovers, and community. Or you travel alone and live the life you desire from one interest to the next. Stay footloose and fancy-free. Being able to trace your own evolution is good, but don't let any of your experiences crystalize into a fixed story, or you'll become too bound to them. Everything you experience makes part of who you are; it's all quite random, it isn't fate, nor meant to be. But every small decision you make against those random situations are what defines you.

Bla bla bla. This is not some stock wisdom. Just my advice as a fellow person who lived on the road for 15 years, and always followed my instincts to stay or leave.

The best thing I learned for myself was this: Never say no when someone invites you somewhere new. You'll only regret not trying it.

(I've lived in Prague, Avignon, Granada, Saigon, Bangkok, Adelaide, Buenos Aires... at least 6 months each, and a dozen more, drawn to different places by tales from people I met, and some who I traveled with). [edit: this list of places as opposed to other places probably reveals quite a lot, and is not meant to stuff my credentials; they're places every free world traveler of a certain kind probably has gone. More just to explain that we take these paths, and one thing leads to another...]