Day 26: Why I'm Here

So I've been here in Korea for almost a month, and only just recently have I realized that, for many of you, I have not yet explained why I came here to Korea. It's very important to me that you understand the reasons why I decided to uproot my wonderful life in Vancouver to come out here. So sit back, get comfortable, and be prepared to find out about the things that make Scotty tick...! ;-)

I am a firm believer in dreams. I always have been, and always will. When everyone is a child, they know exactly what they want to do with their life, and have no problem imagining their perfect future. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" is a question commonly asked to children, and most have absolutely no difficulty answering it. But then something happens... I don't know when it is, maybe in our dissillusioned and over-dramatic teen years, or maybe at the onset of 'adult-hood', but at some point in our lives almost everyone abandons their dreams. All the amazing and crazy and wonderful goals that they set out for themselves as children become pushed aside. Societal pressures to "Get an education! Get a job! Get married!" begin to sink in, and most of us succumb. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing for everyone - for many people their dream IS to get married and settle down and have children, and I think that's awesome and wonderful. However, I do believe that a lot of people follow that path because that's what we're told, more like programmed, to do. We are raised as children to believe that anything in life is possible and that we can grow up to be whatever we can dream of, but as adults we are often scolded or laughed at or looked down on when we dare to stray from the 'straight and narrow' path. The pressure to be "sensible" and "responsible" is extremely convincing, and so many people fall immediately into the 9-5 routine, and then the next thing you know their life has passed them by, and they look back at all the dreams they set out for themselves, and wonder whatever happened to them...

I don't ever want to regret not pursuing a dream of mine, and that is why I am here in Korea.

There was two things that I've always known, ever since I was a child, that I wanted to do with my life. One of them was to build cities, and the other was to see the world. During my teen years by big dream was to move out to Vancouver, get a degree from Simon Fraser University, and live in a high-rise apartment overlooking the ocean. I feel so blessed and so privileged and so proud that I have been able to accomplish that dream! I truly am extremely lucky for all the opportunities in life that I have been given (I have myself, my parents, and the fact that I live in a country like Canada to thank for that.) And so I leave Vancouver not because I was dissatisfied with my life there, or because I was running away from responsibility, or because I was lost or confused or didn't know what to do next with my life. I left Vancouver because it was time to move on and pursue my next dream - world travel.

I've always imagined and dreamed about what it would be like to experience LIVING in a foreign country. This is very different from VISITING a foreign country. As much as I enjoy being a tourist in different countries, I've realized that it's a very different experience from actually living as a resident in another country. As a tourist, you are very sheltered from the 'real world' of the place that you are visiting. You fly in, run around the city/island/country for a week or two, take a million photos, visit a few museums and tourist traps, check out a few monuments and landmarks, generally don't interact all that much with locals, and then leave back to your homeland. I've always likened it to 'voyaging in a plastic bubble'. I've always believed that in order to truly get a feel for what a place is like, you have to experience it as a resident. The day-to-day life of residents in a foreign country is far different than what a tourist goes through when they visit. I wanted to be able to say that I lived somewhere other than Canada, got to know what daily life in that land was like, made friends with locals who actually lived there, maybe learned a bit of the language, and just felt like I was part of that community. That is my ideal of what travelling should be like.

A lot of people were either very confused or just down right shocked when I told them that I wanted to move overseas to teach English. "But that's not urban planning, Scott!" "What does teaching English have to do with your degree, Scott?" "What about finally getting a *real* job, Scott?" This is just a sample of the reactions that I heard from many people. Teaching English is something that I'm good at and thoroughly enjoy, but I'm not here because I wanted to be an English teacher. Teaching English is, I believe, the best way to pick yourself up, plop down in just about any country you can name, get a job, and actually be able to support and immerse yourself in a new life in a new land. It is the means for me to accomplish my dream.

And so here I am. I gave up everything that I worked so hard to achieve in Vancouver, threw caution to the wind, and took the plunge. Here I am in Korea. It's crazy and it's chaotic and it's stressful and it's illogical and it's 'not the sensible thing to do in life', but I love it, and I'm so glad I'm here. It's different and it's unpredictable and it's exhilirating and it's challenging and it's strengthening and it's inspiring and it's amazing every single day. Even during the moments/days when it's been really hard for me out here, when I've felt lonely or isolated or stressed or confused, I've never ever doubted that this was the right choice for me. I'm out living my dream of experiencing life in a foreign land, and its even more wonderful than I could have ever fathomed.

All of this is good for gaining 'life experience,' and I will know on the day that I die that I lived out my dreams and dared to be different. I believe that most of us grow up far too fast in life. We're barely out of university or college and we're already rushing down the aisle, rushing into the office to sit there for the next forty years, rushing to buy things that will supposedly make us happy, and in essence it seems, almost rushing to die... I am in no rush whatsoever to become an urban planner, because not only do I have faith that someday I will, I know that I don't need to race as fast as I can towards city hall RIGHT NOW in order to accomplish that. It's not a 'now or never' option! I've always thought that your 20's should be a decade of discovery and life exploration, and maybe being a little too irresponsible, a little too wild and crazy, and a little too selfish. When else in life are you ever going to have the chance to do that again? We have our 30's and our 40's and so on to sit behind a desk and make lots of money and consume products. Once you achieve a family or a career job or buy property and make it your home you sorta have to grow up and become responsible. There are things to take care of, and other people that rely on you. It becomes difficult to leave all that behind once you've gained it, nor does one really want to since I imagine that it's wonderful to have all those things, but I wanted to take the opportunity to go out into the world and be a 'global nomad' before I settled down. One day I know I will, I just don't want it to be now.

There are several quotations that I've vowed to live my life by, and here's a few that inspire and drive and encourage me every day:

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less travelled, and that has made all the difference."
~Robert Frost

"The only difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives while everyone else lets life create them."
~Unknown

"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."
~Unknown

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
~Mark Twain

There's so many others that inspire me as well, but those ones are my favourites. If you have not yet done so already, you absolutely must read "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho! It really is the most amazing book that you will ever read in your life, and it is this book that I draw my life's inspiration from. Many of the things that I have written about above are discussed in this book, which is a fable about a shepherd boy in Spain and how he goes about to achieve his Personal Legend. Your "Personal Legend" is what you dreamed about becoming as a child, and that all the universe conspires to help you achieve it when you listen to your heart and are brave enough to go out and find it. I know that sounds all very new-agey and uber-cheesy and I can imagine a few of you rolling your eyes right now, but trust me on this one, it really is an incredible book and I encourage, no, PLEAD, with you to go out and read it right now! Life is short, and I want to be able to get the most out of the opportunities that I've been given, and experience all that this world has to offer.

So there ya go! Sorry that took so long, but I wanted to be able to really properly and thoroughly explain myself. You've just been given some insight into what I'm out doing, and also into what I believe, and how I'm choosing to live my life. I hope that I have not offended anyone with this entry! I don't mean to over-criticize or insult anyone's choices in life or get all preachy up here on my silly soapbox. These are just the values that I'm choosing to follow, and it's a path in life that's not meant for everyone. Follow your own heart and your own dreams, and just take what I've said with a grain of salt. It's my opinion only, after all, and we're allowed to have that. I just wanted to share with you how I feel and open up a little.

I'd really love to hear your thoughts about this, and encourage absolutely everyone who either agrees or disagrees or supports or was upset or whatever by anything that I wrote. This whole blog thing has been great and I love writing in it but it's very 'one-way' and a little unfair, cause you get to understand exactly everything that I'm experiencing and thinking, but I don't often get to hear anything back. It's a one-way dialogue, and I'd love to know what you're thinking. Be honest, be brutal if you need to be. I just laid out all my thoughts and feelings out to be exposed on the table. Now it's your turn. :-)

s2hworldtour@hotmail.com

I'll be waiting... ;-)