How did I get here?

It’s a question I try to ask myself regularly to gauge my progress toward my goals and aspirations. Fortunately, I’ve had the privilege to accomplish many of those and I look forward to fulfilling many more. But back to the question: how did I get here? Here: in this plane seat in San Antonio, 33 hours from starting a four-month adventure in Thailand. I believe there are many starting points that might answer that question. Perhaps it began by watching my grandma, GG, travel across the world when I was a kid. Or possibly it was when I traveled to Europe with People to People back in 2008. Or maybe it starts with my decision to go out of state for college, which led me to study abroad. While all of these experiences played their part in influencing where I am, I’m going to focus on a recent–and mostly untold–story that changed everything for me and got the ball rolling toward Thailand.

December 28, 2016

To this point, I believe it was the most stressful day of my life. I was flying back to Nashville from a Christmas vacation in McAllen, TX. The flight from Harlingen to Houston went fine but then up in the air on the flight to Nashville, we encountered a big system that forced us to weave in and around giant clouds as the plane shook violently for the final hour of the flight. To those that aren’t aware, I absolutely hate flying. In just about every other facet of life, I’m fine. However, flying makes me incredibly anxious and I typically feel sick for the entire duration of any given flight. So as you might have guessed, I walked off of that flight drenched in sweat and on a razor thin edge. To top things off, I was flying back to an ex-girlfriend that had broken up with me just a day or so prior and demanded she pick me up so I could retrieve any possessions of mine from her apartment. Not fun times. I walked into my place that night sweaty, anxious, and heartbroken. However, I came to realize months later that it was the first time in years I was truly free.

2017

Free from school, free from a stable job (to my dismay), free from any major payments, and free from a relationship, I began 2017 in search of a new path and direction to follow. That led me to my first office job at a healthcare tech company, but when that wasn’t fulfilling enough, I decided to leave Nashville and figure something else out back home in Texas. For years I had talked about my desire to spend a year or so living and working abroad but I didn’t know in what capacity that might take form. After a couple months of research, I found that with a TEFL certification (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and my university degree, I would be eligible to teach English in a host of different countries. Consequently, I set out to gain that certification and upon completion I began to research my options. I bounced around between Colombia, Thailand, and China but ultimately I chose Thailand because I’d never been to any Eastern country and the allure of Thailand’s natural beauty and culture paired with its low cost of living seemed like a great starting point. So I found a number of firms, applied, interviewed, fielded my offers, and accepted one in Mueang, Chonburi, Thailand.

Two Suitcases and a Backpack

So, we’ve answered my original question but now what?  Now, I travel for the next 30 hours or so with a couple suitcases and a backpack on a one-way journey to Bangkok. I don’t really know what to expect other than what I’ve briefly read online and in my travel book. The food is meant to be delicious; the people, very friendly (so don’t worry, mom); and the landscape, pristine. All I really know is that I’m a bit uncomfortable (understatement) by the uncertainly that lies ahead, which I expect means I’m about to learn a lot about a lot. Hopefully that manifests itself through the posts in this blog, which I’m sure it will.

How’d you get there?

I want to thank anyone that’s read this far down and I look forward to sharing my future stories, photos, and adventures for those that are interested in following! I’d like to end by asking you: how’d you get where you are?

Feel free to comment below and share this with anyone you think might enjoy it!

Until next time,
Anthony