"We are our choices", Jean Paul Sartre

I've read a whole host of articles recently that list the ways in which travelling can make you a "better person", a person who should be hired over someone else or the reasons why you are more likely to be more successful if you travel.

While I do sometimes enjoy a quick flick through these posts (mainly to help justify the decisions I've made recently), I admit that these often cringe-worthy articles are laced with arrogance: for the huge majority of people, making the choice to give everything up and travel is not an option. Money, family commitments, unemployment, health, the wrong passport, living in extreme poverty on less than US$1.25 per day... a whole host of other situational reasons can stop a person from feeling they have the choice to go off for a period of time and see some of the world.

This is why I will ever be grateful for being one of the lucky few who can. The main reasons for my being able to include:

- being BORN lucky... I wasn't born into a war-torn country, nor a country suffering from drought or famine, I wasn't born lacking access to the basic needs of clean water, nutrition, sanitation, health care or education. Instead, I was granted automatic access to a European passport and a loving, open-minded family who enjoys adventure and always encouraged me to work hard so that I can play hard too.

- making my own luck... While I truly believe I was born one of the luckiest people in the world, my Dad also taught me from a very young age that, 'You make your own luck in this world'. I've grown up seeing truth in what he says, at least for the huge majority of people born in the 'free world', in countries such as the UK. While everyone of us was born into circumstances that were out of our control, every single choice we've made in our life has led us to this point. To exactly where we are now. And think... how many more choices do we have left to make while we are on this earth? How many choices will we make this week? Today? How many in the next hour alone? Will we continue sitting at our computer for the next hour or go for a walk in the fresh air? Will we crack open a beer later or drink water instead? Will we make those online purchases or will we put that money away to be used for a day/weekend/week/MONTH out with our friends or family? There are so many people who were born into very similar circumstances as me yet have chosen not to live the same life... and this is why it can be quite frustrating to hear people repeat, 'Oh you're so lucky.. I would never be able to do that.' In response, I often silently question, 'Why not? You could choose to do similar things if you truly, genuinely wanted to. You could make sacrifices just like I have to enable you to make similar choices.'

So finally....

- accepting that I am 'condemned to be free' and taking responsibility for the choices I make... I think people often think that, for me, it's easy to make the decisions I do. The decisions to live away from my family, from the friends I grew up with and who I am still close to, to choose a job and a home away from home. It's not. It really, truly is NOT. These are all huge sacrifices and it's never been easy to make those choices. Sometimes, I've made what has turned out in hindsight to be the wrong choice. But life is full of difficult decisions and I think it's also about being ok with the choices you make at the time, taking responisbilty for the choices YOU make. Every time I make a decision to do something like move away, like taking a job that moves me further away from 'home', from my family, I weigh up the same things anyone else would. Can I really be so far away from my family? Won't I miss the everyday goings-on back home? Will I be able to cope with not being fully integrated into a society when I get there? Why am I even thinking of doing this? These are difficult questions to answer and, there have been times where I've not taken a job or an opportunity to travel because the answers to these questions have kept me in one place. However, more often, when weighing these things up, the answers have been... YES it will be difficult to be away from my family, to not be able to just call in for dinner or a quick chat with my mum, to know that I am missing out on my friends' and now thier children's lives. But more difficult would be missing out on the opportunities I am granted when living and working away. The opportunities to be myself, to be surrounded by like-minded people, to see and experience new things, to be forced to push myself outside my comfort zone, to learn a new language... the list goes on.

"If you don't like something, change it.

If you can't change it, change your attitude."

Maya Angelou

What choices will we need to make today? What choices will we make this year? Are we happy with the way our lives have turned out this far, with all the choices we have made that have led to this point? If not, will we make new choices to change that? Or will we compare ourselves to others and complain about how 'lucky' they are in comparison? Life is too short for complaining... Do something about it.