I have something so amazing to tell you that I am having trouble sitting still…Next year, I will be travelling Europe for nine months!
It’s a dream about to come true; an empowering, daunting, slightly overwhelming but oh-so-wonderful reality.
As I write this, I’m sitting on my favourite red park bench in Brisbane’s King Edward Park, looking over tropical gardens and the CBD traffic. There are men in suits on blackberries, construction workers on their way home, well-dressed women chatting over a sandwich… I look around and wonder what it will be like being an outsider to this world for a whole nine months.
Instead of jumping to the sound of my alarm and trudging off to work every morning, I will be waking up in a new place, ready to explore new sights and cultures, keen to meet new people. I will be leaving my lovely Brisbane bubble (such a wonderfully vibrant comfort zone) and stepping into an existence that is conscious of choice over routine. I will not be wearing office-appropriate clothing. I will be missing my own bed and my family. I will be challenged and inspired and confronted. And I will be free.
Since starting this blog last year, I have maintained that daily life should be about choice, freedom and adventure; it should be lived with the same enthusiasm and intrepid spirit as a holiday. This is a hard thing to do. And while I think I’ve had some great successes, I also think that sustaining that mindset will be a lifelong goal. So, to keep myself invigorated (and my readers vicariously through me), I’m off to travel again.
The decision to do this big trip (finally) has come from many things. I have a wonderful partner with whom I can’t wait to travel (a first for us). We have lovely friends tying the knot in Oslo in January, which was the practical catalyst for our decision. And, as life becomes more complicated with careers and houses and rooms full of stuff, I find myself constantly reminded that now is the time; we need to do it now before we get side-tracked or are, for some reason, unable.
Oh, I can’t wait to share this travel adventure with you all!
But now, there is so much to do before we leave in only 10 weeks. <Insert excited yet overwhelmed face> Of course, it will be my pleasure to keep you updated as we plan and plot, pack and prepare for a life contained within a backpack and a big wide world.
Nic Freeman 
What do you think?