or: A Reflection On My Gap Year From Asia

A few more days and I am on the move again. I’ll be going back to where this particular journey began – the bright lights, and now cold weather, of HK.

I’ll have been away for a year so as well as it being my Long Service Leave from Asia, it is also my Gap Year from Asia. It has been a very rewarding experience on so many fronts that I don’t quite no where to begin.

I didn’t even know I was going to be gone for a year when I set out.

I’ll begin with Facebook… a post from just before I left popped up in my memories a few days ago. I wrote about what I wanted to achieve while I was away. It made me laugh since it seems I can’t even travel without having a goal in mind!

My goals were:

To meet all my Facebook friends face-to-face
Write for blogs, magazines and books
Continue growing my business
Volunteer along the way for projects

I even mentioned what I knew would happen anyway:

See more of the world, eat new foods, meet new people
General sightseeing
Experiment with my photography

One of the 974 things that’s good about these sort of lists is the opportunity to reflect and see what worked, what didn’t, and what I to change for next time.

I spent most of my time in the Southern African region and Europe and met all but two of my Facebook friends in those areas.

I’ve now been in Australia for a couple of months and have seen quite a few of my FB friends and have also missed quite a few. It’s likely I will be back toward the end of this year so I’m intending to see the rest then.

Obviously I haven’t limited my visits to only FB friends. Quite a few people choose not to use it. I also met quite a few of my family, some of whom I’d never met before and some who I had only spent about an hour with. This has since been rectified and some have probably had an overdose of me instead!

Some are also now FB friends.

I did quite a bit of writing however didn’t send any pitches to magazines. This is an area I will improve. Blogs are ongoing (I’ve started writing in other areas online too) and my books are works-in-progress. Like any writer, it is all a matter of being torn between time and the worthless quest for perfection. And just getting all my ideas out on the page / screen.

Growing my business is another area I will focus on in the coming year. I spent more time meeting people and exploring new areas and not the time required to grow my business. That said, I have laid some groundwork and have also started to expand what I can do through a couple of courses.

Volunteering with Blue Ventures in Madagascar is definitely a highlight of my Gap Year. This is one of the most rewarding things I have done in a long time. It had the benefit of helping other people, tapping into my desire to help the environment, as well as giving me the opportunity to learn 191 fish and meet some incredible people along the way. I finally saw lemurs in the wild. This is an experience that will stick with me for quite a while and has influenced some of the decisions I have made since then. One in particular is to obtain the Divemaster qualification. I have started the online modules for before doing the practical part.

I have definitely seen more of the world, eaten new foods and met new people. This has been one of the things that has distracted me from growing my business. It is a pleasant distraction and very worthwhile. “Distraction” isn’t the right word. It’s more a case of seeing this as a higher priority. People before business seems to be right when there’s only a limited time in a place.

What is funny is roughly six or seven years ago, I changed my FB friend acceptance / offer criteria to. I had to be comfortable either sleeping on that person’s couch or having them sleep on mine (albeit mine is currently in storage). This November, FB informed me that I had made 40 new friends over the past 11 months. I had no idea! I think this is fantastic that 40 people have made that big an impact on me, in 11 months, in addition to the people who were already there and the others who choose not to use FB. People are really amazing.

I hope they don’t all come to use the couch at the same time.

I’ve seen parts of the world which I’ve wanted to see for awhile and returned to some others. I’ve explored galleries, theatres, markets, moors, bush and underwater. I’ve eaten more food than I think I normally eat in a year!

As John Williamson sang, “I’ve seen the sights and had delights on every foreign shore. But when my friends all ask me, the place that I adore, I tell them right away…” and rather than singing Give Me A Home Among the Gumtrees, I list off quite a few other locations too.

Of course there have been photographs…. I flick through these from time to time and I can’t help but smile. It has been an amazing year.

So what’s next?

Good question!

A massive thanks to everyone who has been a part of my travels. People have opened their homes and shared their families. Some have even fed me (arguably a little too much). I’ve learnt to cook a few new meals, been taken on a light plane up the part of the east coast of Australia, and make coffee using a fancy-pants machine. Most of all, thanks to all those who took the time to catch up with me and show me around their home towns or explored new areas with me. I’ve learnt a lot. I’m honoured to call you all my friends. Including those not on Facebook. 😉

Let me know when you need my couch. I may need a rostering system!

* Thanks to Jedediah for the title to this post. They are touring at the moment and will be playing on the Gold Coast for Easter.