Holidays, no matter which way you look at them, are the ultimate means of escape. Every time I’ve ever gone abroad it’s to get away from something, it’s just that over time those ‘somethings’ change depending on where you are in life.
At 18, once I’d finished my A-Levels, I went away for a month with two friends, exploring Copenhagen, Berlin, Vienna and Geneva before heading to university. Throughout uni my holidays were pretty much a massive piss-up, from a villa in Spain to the world’s most disgusting hostel in Amsterdam.
My holidays in the first few years of my career involved lying on a beach and not much more. That was until my last job sent me to Australia for a two week placement. I spent two weeks in Sydney, followed by a week in Melbourne and a week in Hong Kong. I’d flown further than I’d ever been; I saw things that I never thought I’d see; I was genuinely moved to tears by some of the things I experienced, and that was it: I was well and truly bitten by the travel bug, and over the last two years I’ve travelled more than I ever have before.
2016 for me is a year of really reassessing what I want. I’m at that weird age where things are suddenly getting pretty serious and I want to make sure that I’m making all of the right decisions. I love the industry I work in and want to remember that; I love London but I want to know if I miss it enough to carry on paying extortionate rent; I love my friends and family but I want to spend some time by myself, doing something for me and only me. And with that comes the biggest decision of my life.
I’ve booked a one way ticket to Kuala Lumpur and for three months I am escaping. There are rough plans to see pandas in China, eat traditional laksa in Singapore, get a ferry over to Tasmania from Melbourne, and get a bus from Auckland to Christchurch. I am SO EXCITED. Not only can I not wait to go, but I can’t wait to come back. I’m excited to be refreshed, reinvigorated and hit up new challenges. 2015 was one of the worst years of my life and I’m taking 2016 into my own hands.
