There are many things that I would like to have in the future, a house, multiple pets, great friends, time for hobbies, and so on. However, there is something that stands out as an ultimate goal for my future, that being that I would like to be financially stable enough to travel.
Travel has always been an important part of life, but due to financial constraints and having parents that are not super into travelling, I haven’t been able to do nearly as much as I would like. My parents always took my sister and I on little family vacations to New Brunswick, PEI, and within Nova Scotia, but we never left the maritimes. Our first big trip was to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for my cousin’s wedding. We got to go because everything was paid for, and thank the lord for that because it was an incredible time, despite some sketchy encounters off of the resort.
My second trip was to Ecuador with some of my fellow schoolmates and teacher in high school. We travelled with EF Tours and MetoWe. This included a ton of fundraising and the generosity of my family who helped me pay for the remaining total. This was an opportunity and experience of a lifetime. We stayed in hostels and worked on the foundation of a new cafeteria for a tiny rural school in the mountains of Chimborazo with another school group from Toronto. I met great new people, experienced a new culture, tried new foods (including guinea pig), was introduced to the Spanish language, and saw what appeared to be an entirely new world compared to Nova Scotia.
My third and most recent trip was to Greece. I was able to go on this trip because my grandmother (whom I was going to visit) paid for my flights. This was an interesting, stressful, and less inspiring trip than my Ecuador travels because of family conflict, and once again, for being a female and being around men who think of females as objects to gawk at and make comments towards. However, I was able to go on a four-day bus trip on my own. Once again, I met so many incredible people from all over the world. I ate great food, laid on beautiful beaches, and got to spend quality time with my grandmother in the place that she calls home (something that I never thought would happen).
What I hope to convey from this post is that travel is so important to me. So I hope and I pray that someday I will be at a job that pays me enough to be able to live comfortably, as well as be able to continue travelling, without having to worry immensely about the money side of things.