Why I'm Dropping Everything to Travel the World
Why I'm Dropping Everything to Travel the World
I have decided to take a leap into the unknown. Finishing my last year of teaching middle school math before the trip begins seems surreal, but exciting. Here's my rationale behind why I'm dropping everything to travel the world!
"Do it now while you're young!"
A question I am asked, and even ask myself all the time, is “Why am I doing this?”. Why drop everything I have ever worked for in pursuit of the unknown?
A little background:
I always knew I was going to be a teacher. I was a ten year old sitting at my grandfather’s “mouria” in Greece, when I was flooded with excitement about the idea of becoming a teacher. (Mouria is a Mulberry Tree)
As a ten year old, my thoughts as to why I wanted to teach were a bit different than they are now. I thought it would be great to have the summers off to be able to visit my family in Greece every year.
Friends and Family eating in Greece
My Grandfather's "Mouria", 2018
As I grew older, the thought went on the back burner for a while. I didn’t think about it much until I reached my senior year of high school. The pressures of what I was going to do with my life and what college I was going to attend came pretty quickly.
It wasn’t until entered my senior Physics class where that ten year old boy inside me woke up again...
Dr. Tiffany Rhodes (or TRhodes as we would call her) showed me that teaching can be fun and freeing. Any student can be engaged in Math and Science if there is passion behind the teaching.
This passion brought me to decide to go into the profession, and I have not regretted a single moment. After high school came college, where I started tutoring, and my passion skyrocketed. Seeing the look on people’s faces when they finally understood a difficult math problem was an amazing feeling. Never would I have thought dropping everything to traveling the world would become a reality at this point!
Bridgewater State University
Back from my tangent…
I have had the idea floating around in my head for a few years about long term travel, but I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to do it.
This was the summer away I needed to solidify how this was all going to happen. My brother and a few friends came to meet me out in Greece. We all decided to take a trip to Lefkada! We rented a home by the water, and had the absolute time of our lives.
Friends and family
Lefkada, 2018
When I was ten years old, it came to me I was going to be a teacher. Under my Grandfather’s Mouria.
Seventeen years later...
Under the same type of tree, my plans of traveling the world on a motorcycle came to be.
With increasing intensity each moment the thought arose, my excitement began to stir. Thinking to myself “South America sounds nice”, to “well it would be cool to see Europe and Africa too”, sparked this intense desire to travel and see as much of the world as possible on my motorcycle.
I returned home from Greece, found the motorcycle I was looking for and bought it without hesitation. I was going to wait to give my notice at work until at least Christmas, but I couldn’t contain myself any longer than two weeks.
The motorcycle for my trip
2006 Suzuki V-Strom 650
Giving my notice was one of the most freeing feelings I have ever felt. It meant that these dreams and thoughts I had were becoming a reality.
My mind said “There is no going back now”, and my heart rushed with an indescribable joy…
This is when I knew dropping everything to travel the world was becoming a reality.
When I tell people what my plans are, some tend to ask “Why are you doing this?”. And I ask myself the same thing sometimes. Why am I giving up my dream job at one of the best public schools in the country to travel the world?
Most older people I have said this to always tell me “Do it now while you’re young! Before the kids and family get in the way”
I have to agree with them…
I respect the people who have the patience to say “I’ll do it when I retire”. Personally, I could not hold onto a soul urge for that long.
I can barely hold back my excitement and it’s only a year away!
Soon enough, I will be finishing my Master’s, selling all of my things, and only keeping what I can strap to my motorcycle.
But why am I dropping everything to travel the world?
My heart is telling me this is an experience I cannot pass up. One that is a part of my journey just as much as teaching all these years has been.
I look forward to sharing my experiences and growing with you, my readers, on a trip that will undoubtedly change me for the rest of my life!
'Til next time,
Pete - A Traveling Teacher