THE YEAR OF TRAVEL
I proclaim this year to be The Year of Travel.
I kind of half-mentioned this in passing on my other blog, but I am not working for the rest of the year.
I don’t mean I’ll stop blogging or anything, I just mean I won’t be working as a consultant for the rest of 2011.
Call me crazy, but this is really another conscious step or decision in my life to really live my life. I’m following what I want to do.
I am fortunate to have saved, so I don’t need the money, and I already worked enough at the start of this year to cover all of my expenses for 2011.
I need to travel to Asia (more so than ever now) and that’s coming up pretty soon, and I still need to book tickets and prep for it.
Once we come back, it’s going to be a few fleeting months of long goodbyes, outings, picture-taking and packing before we leave Canada.
And yes, we’re really leaving.
Then I’d like to travel around the States. Hop back to New York, go to California, travel around Texas itself…
Maybe go to Europe and see Spain this time.
So I can’t in good faith, take on any project that is longer than a month or two.
I have life plans that I am not willing to put on hold for work, I’ve done way too much of that in past years, and sometimes regretted it.
I can always work and make more money, but time & the moment is more important, and this is really my time and moment to travel and make a life change.
So yeah, that’s all I wanted to say 🙂
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Caution:
Dirty possibly offensive content to follow.
I don’t know how sensitive you are, but if you are really squeamish about sex and dirty jokes, please skip 🙂
Reading Punch Debt’s post a while back about how much you’d have to be paid to take off your clothes for Playboy, it reminded me of a story.
I heard this on a French radio Les Grosses Têtes with Philippe Bouvard on RTL.fr., but a very rich and successful reporter was asked:
“How did you get these famous people/celebrities/whatever to do what they were doing? No one would do that!“
He replied: “It’s simple. Everyone has a pricetag.”
The woman reporter replied: “No, I don’t believe that!”
He said: “Look, if I paid you $100,000 could I screw you in the butt?”
She said, horrified at the audacity of the question: “NO!!!”
He replied, “No? How about $200,000? $500,000?”
To each answer, she kept saying: “NO NO NO NO!”
Then he said: “One million?”
She paused.
Him: “Ahh.. see? You’re thinking about it. 🙂 ”
It’s a funny, dirty story, but those are interesting words that have made me re-shape my perspective on life a bit.
I can see why people do the things they do, when you consider that everyone has a price, even if yours is $250,000 and someone else would happily accept $50,000.
From that, I can see why corruption exists and how human nature kicks in over morals, ethics and rationality.
I can also understand now that for a price, people are willing to do things they never thought they’d do.
Let’s say you go into a store, and you want to buy their precious mascot off the wall, and they refuse to sell.
Eventually, they will sell to you if the price is high enough.
Sure, you might have to keep pestering them and go up to a crazy amount before you get that mascot, but you’ll get it, no matter what they say.
It really makes you re-examine your values/morals in life, and with a less extreme approach, you can take it to mean that everyone has their own buttons to be pushed and their own price tag, so to speak.
It’s just what you’re willing to “pay” to get those buttons pushed.
For instance, if you asked me to go up to the Great White North to live in a trailer, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by snow and ice, with minimal food on the project with nothing but a laptop, I’d scoff if you tried to offer me my regular rate.
But if you went up to maybe $500/hour, I’d think about it. At $5000/hour, I’d ask you when the next plane leaves.
And probably bring BF to keep me company and from going insane.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
Yupp. Everyone has their price. It’s true.
That woman reporter is not very intelligent is she?
It’s like when one kid says “I’ll give you 5 cents if you eat that bug” and the other kid says they’ll do it for a dollar…
or more likely:
Kid 1: I’ll give you $1 if you eat that bug
Kid 2: I’ll do it for $0.50
I think most people would avoid anything that gets them sent to jail or that harm another person. I think that’s what Emily was trying to say. I’d love to win the lottery so I could focus more on personal fulfillment and not worry so much about paying bills.
Type your reply…
Hi, sorry I’m late in replying, no I don’t play the lottery. I’m not against the lottery or gambling, but speaking for myself its something that I choose not to do mostly because its a form of gambling to me. I don’t want to waste my money on lottery tickets.
My mom bought me a lottery ticket when I was 18 but I didn’t win anything, and I did play with a slot machine in Las Vegas I think I won a hundred but the allure quickly gets lost after 10 minutes for me. It was okay, I don’t like the casino environment. Its loud, smoky and tacky. In fact people think I’m crazy because I don’t like the las vegas strip.
I’m not religious or anything but I’m just not into that stuff. Its not my thing. My bf doesn’t buy lottery tickets either, he’s not against it and he thinks its a waste of money too. My mom does buy them once in awhile. I think most people would be better off saving their money, investing in their education, etc.
Great point!!
Do you play the lottery? I don’t, so my mom always tells me: Girl, how are you going to retire and win the lottery if you never play?
Me: I plan on saving to retire… 😛 And I’d rather save that $$ than play the lottery.
The “everyone has a pricetag” thing cracks me up, because in one of my lab classes in college, a group of us used to play a “how much $ would you need to do…” game (actually, most of us just stood around and laughed at the few that had the guts to actually name a price), and it was really entertaining, especially as the things got more outrageous as the weeks went on.
I think some of the other commenters have a good point though, that for most of us, we have a price tag for some things, but there are some things we could never, ever do (harming children, etc).
One other thought- a friend of mine in college had a roommate who was featured on playboy’s website for some college special. Before it ran, she was telling everyone about the “good exposure” it would bring her, and the money…but after it actually went up, and she heard/saw people’s reactions, she had regrets. Interesting to think about how the “payment” was enough beforehand, but not as satisfying after.
We can’t predict the future, that’s for sure.
The consequences are not worth it, if you have other options available. But a single, working mother might think otherwise, saying — hey, I needed to feed my kids. My family comes first and my pride second.
Yeah, you know I think hurting your pride is a part of the price (of some of these things, like posing nude), that maybe you wouldn’t see in advance. And if the circumstances were such that you REALLY needed the money, or there weren’t options, then it would just be part of your price, I think.
(but in this case, as far as I remember, this girl wasn’t hurting for money as her parents paid for everything- then again, maybe she was just playing the part, and had a lot of debt! So it was almost like “her price” changed over time)
That’s a good point. Perhaps you would do less or more depending on your age, what you already have learned from others or have seen happen 🙂
Good for you for having the guts to go out and live life. Carpe Diem!
Thanks!
This is the time for me to get traveling out of my system for a while. 🙂
Follow your heart, if it is telling you to travel and see the world… then do it!! You only go around once.. ( I know.. a cliche, but it is true!) If you pass by sunny Florida…. drop me an Email.
I don’t know if we’ll be going by Florida but I’d like to see it 🙂
But but… Japan… Nuclear….. o___o;;
Maybe you wanna push it back a lil late. What if something happens? >_<
I am not going to Japan…
I suppose I must have a price !!! Only I dont know what it is as nobody has made me an offer as yet.
I,m so jealous of all your travel plans, but I,m 100% behind you, do it while you are young enough to get the most out of every single moment
LOL! 🙂 That’s the rub. You don’t know what your price is yet.
This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k4Xk1mEwmI is something I would NOT do, no matter how much the price tag was. $2 million? Nope. Wouldn’t do it.
As for nudity, why not? We’re all dying anyways, and being so young, I could really use $500,000+.. I wouldn’t do anything like gross nude. But there are some amazing photographs out there showing the beauty of a woman’s body, and I’m cool with that.
I think artistic nude shots are pretty, but something gross and crude is what people would really pay huge bucks for. 🙂 It’s the nature of such an industry.
No. I don’t agree with that. There is nothing that you could offer to me, threaten me with, or do to me that would convince me to harm my child. And if someone tried, it would be on. Everyone may have a price tag for something, but not everyone has a price tag for everything.
You’re speaking for yourself, but there are other parents who abuse without the offer of money.
I don’t think that’s what they mean when they say that. Most reasonable people wouldn’t harm their children.
Let me know when you are in the US. My current contract ends in January, and I am thinking of taking a break as well.
Where in the US? 🙂 If I’m in Texas, will you be around?
Congrats on following your bliss and traveling the rest of this year! That’s exciting! It’s so neat to see someone live their priorities, save for what they want and then go and get it!! Hope you enjoy every moment of the rest of year.
I’m torn on the “everyone has a pricetag” issue… I think there are some things I would do for a price, but not others. For instance, I could make a lot more money in a different aspect of my field, but I would hate every second, and feel a knot in the pit of my stomach doing that kind of work, because I’d feel I was compromising my personal and professional integrity. That said, like yourself, I would consider working in an isolated location with little in the way of comforts (for a while) if the price was right. Perhaps I’d just add the caveat, “everyone has a price for something…”
Thank you!!
There are people who wouldn’t feel the same as you do. They would consider giving up everything and anything for money, and while you wouldn’t… people do have price tags 🙂
Have a great time! If you get to Portland OR, drop me a note. 🙂
I think this is a great decision. I wish I could have taken a gap year between high school and college to travel and learn more about the world. The truth is travel is more fun when you are young so enjoy it!
I don’t think I could have taken that gap between high school and college to travel.. I think now that I have the time and the money, (before kids), it’s a better option than in between school. Plus, I had no cash then.
So excited for your travel adventure. When did you switch to Disqus?
When IntenseDebate started losing my comments and not showing them in WP. I had to log into their actual site to see my 90+ pending comments to be approved (SO MAD)…
Wow! I would love to do something like this while I was still young. Congratulations!
Stop by Santa Fe on your way to Texas 😉
I have a whole list of places to visit apparently! 🙂 Adding Santa Fe to my list.
Congratulations, that’s HUGE news. I hope you enjoy every new experience to be had. And I agree, everyone does have their pricetag, no matter what they say. We all need to realize that.
Thank you!!!
Congrats on your Year of Travel project! Drop me a line when you’re on the East Coast–I’ll show you around stodgy old Washington, DC.
Hahha! I would like to go to Washington. I’ve never been 🙂
Good luck on your trip to, well, everywhere. It’s great that you’ve put yourself in a financial position to do that, so just enjoy it and take lots of pictures.
I will, trust me! 🙂