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Have you ever felt like there's a predetermined plan set for your life? Have you ever felt like maybe that's not the life for you? Ever since I can remember, life has always had a particular structure to it. You're born, you go to school, then university. You start a career, you make the necessary money you'll need for retirement and when you reach retirement age then you've got time to relax and enjoy your interests that have since been forgotten. I grew up with the idea that you work for a company from nine to five, 365 days a year, a couple of which are allocated for annual leave that you use for a holiday that always seems too short. It's just how it was and to a certain extent I had accepted it. Parallel to that, I remember always telling myself that after I got my degree I would travel, I would go out and see the world. Unfortunately, as I got to the university part of the plan I had completely accepted the mediocre life set before me. Well the universe seemed to have my back since I'd foregone my adolescent dreams. Just as I was graduating with a law degree from my university, an amazing opportunity was presented before my eyes: 'How would you like to be a camp counselor this upcoming Summer in the USA?'. My gut was telling me that I just had to go for this. Before I knew it, I'd be on a plane to New York for four months after which I had decided it was time to do that traveling I'd promised myself all those years ago and I'd backpack through Europe for a further 6 months. As I write this I will have been traveling for nine months. I'm currently in Germany, reflecting. Reflecting on the good times, the lonely times, the times I nearly missed that plane, bus or train. Reflecting on the people I've met, the decisions I had to make since no one else was there to make them for me. The pros and cons of living out of a backpack and the couches of friends and family that let me crash while in their neck of the woods. And while there are so many things that have happened in the last nine months, some were unexpected. I didn't expect to feel at home while being away from my literal home, I felt relatively complete for the first time in... well ever. I had to leave the friends and family I hold so incredibly close to my heart and it isn't that I don't miss them every single day, I do. Yet the life that I'm creating for myself and the growth I'm encompassing, I don't think I would be able to find it back there in South Africa. While being away I've visited the Big Apple and I went to my first drag show. In Amsterdam I couchsurfed for the first time. In Germany I got to connect with family in such a way, I'll forever be grateful for the opportunity. I volunteered in Berlin and felt hopelessly uncomfortable so I left just as easily as I arrived. I applied for a Visa to the UK from my mobile phone! I visited Big Ben, walked the streets of Edinburgh, visited the legendary monster said to live in Loch Ness. I stayed up 36 hours straight to catch the right flights and trains, just to nearly get off at the wrong stop! The stories I've gathered baffle my mind when I think about them. Yet it still isn't enough, I want to ride this emotional rollercoaster again and again. I created a bucket list of places I want to go, things I want to do, people I want to see on different continents and I'm hell bent on crossing everything off that list. My story isn't finished, that mediocre life I had accepted has just been transformed into something much bigger than I ever anticipated. And oh how grateful I am for all the good and bad things I've gone through so far that have brought me to where I am right now.