In just 6 short weeks, a trip that has been in the planning stages since February will begin and I will set off on what is to be a year long trek around the globe.  My first stop is Indiana, where I will stay with relatives for a couple days.  From there I have flights booked to Hawaii to visit a friend, New Zealand, Australia and Vietnam.  My itinerary then has me traveling to Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, India, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and finishing with a three month stay in Europe.

I will spend a month in most countries, except for my stops in Europe where the strict guidelines of the Schengen Visa will cause me to move around more frequently.  I have read accounts written by others who have embarked on around the world journeys and most agree that you need at least one month in country to experience the culture of an area.  My biggest challenge during the infancy stages of this trip was cutting down the list of destinations into a 12 month period.  As I looked at a map, my eyes jumped from continent to continent and region to region and everywhere they fell was somewhere I wanted to go.  I needed to narrow it down.  I knew I wanted fair climates in the countries I traveled to and this trip would most likely begin in November.  With that, I chose New Zealand and Australia as destinations #1 and #2.  It just so happened that a couple months later a friend of mine moved to Hawaii.  I told them about this trip and they insisted I stop there for a couple days prior to continuing to New Zealand.  Hawaii then became stop #1, New Zealand and Australia stops #2 and #3.  My trip was slowly taking shape.  As the months progressed, I parsed the potential country list even more and eventually settled on the destinations listed above.  From then on, I spent the majority of my free time flipping through the pages of Lonely Planet guidebooks researching sites to see, inexpensive accommodations and more importantly how to get from one location to the next.

Early on, I was hesitant to clue people in on this ’round the world adventure as there was still a slight possibility that it would not come to fruition or I would have second thoughts as my departure date grew closer.  However, my two week journey through South America in July made me realize that a year long trek around the globe truly is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  With that I buckled down and booked flights, submitted visa applications and started to let those close to me know what I was planning.

“You’re crazy.”

“Don’t you know how dangerous the world is.”

“You’re going to do this by yourself?”

“You don’t know any foreign languages.”

Those were just a sample of the comments I was met with after describing my plan to family, friends and coworkers.  However, for every person that questioned how I would survive 12 months in foreign lands I had others who encouraged me and opened up to me about how they wanted to do the same thing when they were younger, only to have children, spouses, bills and mortgage payments stand in their way.

The concerns voiced by family and friends have not fallen on deaf ears.  I have spent many restless nights with these concerns and others running through my head.  I’ll admit that I will be incredibly nervous as I board my flight in Hawaii and land in New Zealand, a country where I know absolutely no one.  But, what makes a person who they are is how they handle adversity and the obstacles life throws at them.  It’s the obstacles that keep us on our toes and make life interesting, right?