AJ Marino - Wanderlust and Wifi: How To Not Quit Your Job and Travel The World

Copyright 2018 by Angelica J. Marino
All rights reserved.

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ISBN 0-9000000-0-0

www.MeetAJMarino.com

Introduction

O nce upon a time, there was a girl from Boston who had an idea. What started as a plan to stage an Eat-Pray-Love style discovery across 12 cities in 12 months quickly became a spiral up, down, and around the rabbit hole.

I wrote this book for a few reasons: to commemorate my time abroad, to capture my thoughts and feelings in the moment, and ideally, to inspire people (like you!) to find the confidence they need to start their own crazy journey.

When I was starting out, I practically begged Amazon and Barnes & Noble for a how-to guide on how in the world I was going to pull this off. I never found one. I did, however, find some truly fantastic books, mentors, and communities along the way, and Im using this little book to pay that advice forward. Im also hoping it makes your life a lot easier.

As Ive learned to do when traveling, Im going to set a few ground rules for your reading of this book:

1) Leave your expectations at the door

2) Take what you need

3) Leave what you dont

PS I dont have a mailing address for hate mail.

Chapter 1: Why do you want this?

I f you picked up this book, there was a little corner of your subconscious pulling you towards it. A secret desire you may not have even realized you had, but your brain was pushing you to discover. Or maybe it was the fabulous cover art well, youre still reading for a reason! We all have them: those thoughts that you want to reveal to your best friend at 3AM or write in a journal but are too afraid to say out loud. Lucky for you, I probably already know your secret - because Ive had those thoughts too.

Allow me to introduce the voices in your head. You may not recognize all of them, but I think once you see them, youll know. I promise, Im not a psychic - the truth is, we all crave adventure to some extent. We are all curious about living outside of the norm. Figuring out your intrinsic motivation for wanting to travel up front will help to guide you on the more technical aspects. Dont worry, this isnt going to be a bunch of psychological babble, just some basic storytelling I hope helps you realize youre not alone.

The Explorer

I grew up in a small town south of Boston. For comparisons sake, by small, I mean a suburb of 18,000 people, but the homogeneity of my 98% white, Irish Catholic immigrant community made it feel a whole lot smaller. Growing up, I was never exposed to diversity. Everyone looked and acted the way my family did - except in one area. Luckily for me, my mother was born and raised in Puerto Rico and had grown up traveling the world with the US Navy. She would talk about far away places like Madrid, Naples, or Seoul as if they were neighboring towns, and she made me wonder if Id get to see them one day, too. Living in such a closed environment, cities around the globe seemed more like photos in a textbook than actual destinations with living and breathing people, foods, and cultures. Its one of the downsides of the now widely-accepted, first-world necessity to keep children stable and comfortable in their youth - we rarely ever get the chance to explore until were adults. Once we get here, we have all these hopes and desires, and a whole lot of fear and ignorance holding us back.

As I got older, I started becoming increasingly curious about the world around me. I would remember reading novels about time travel and replay Disney movies like Mulan and Aladdin, imagining myself running around those real world locations one day. Its what makes us all repeatedly share videos of unreal destinations on Facebook, longingly study the maps beneath beautiful Instagram photos, and add endless countries and tourist attractions to our Pinterest bucket list.

I know youve done at least one of those, if not all three - and why? The number one reason people long to travel is simply to experience the world around them. We crave the knowledge of how the images inside of our head actually feel, look, smell, taste.

Do croissants really taste better in Paris?

How does the salt air of the Caribbean feel on my skin?

How tired will I be after walking the Great Wall?

How loud is the din of a souk in Morocco at midday?

Those questions may seem childlike, because, well, they are. Ever seen a video of a child in your life practically running away from their parents just to see whats around the next corner? The desire to explore is one of the first real feelings we experience the second we learn how to take our first steps. Your reason for traveling may simply be that one desire - to see the world for the first time. You dont want to see the confines of a resort, ride a segway around city sidewalks, or only see the two sides of your own country. You want to see a photo of the world and instead of drool, remember exactly what it was like.

The Patriot

Okay, admittedly Im a bit of a history geek so the name of this inner voice has nothing to do with the major league NFL team (although I am from Boston, but in order to keep you reading, well ignore my team loyalties for now). When I say Patriot, I am instead referring to the folks on the winning side of the US Revolutionary War. As a quick refresher, for those who weren't embarrassingly invested in American History in high school, the Loyalists were the folks who wanted to stay part of England, and the Patriots were the ones who craved independence . In todays world, I see those who travel and break the norms as the modern patriots of a work-life balance revolution, and those who stick to the norm as the loyalists. One of the biggest reasons to seek adventure is because you crave that scary feeling of being independent from the standards and expectations youve been living in your whole life. Travel puts us both literally and figuratively out of our comfort zone. Heading out into the world of the unfamiliar will test your patience, your confidence, your knowledge of maps, and your ability to laugh at yourself as you roll with the punches. Its probably going to suck in the moment, but the learning experience will paint it as something youd never want to forget.

Going to school in the relatively small city of Boston, I used to hate visiting big cities like New York. Despite its grid outline, I was always overwhelmed by its sheer size and opportunity, and how many new and strange things were hidden in every corner. After my first four months living abroad, I came home and visited a friend in the Big Apple, and suddenly everything changed. I was easily navigating the streets, smiling at local business owners in store fronts, and it hit me: I had become comfortable with being uncomfortable. New York was no big deal - at least everything was in English! I started laughing in the middle of Chinatown, which earned me a few weird stares, but that just made the situation funnier.

This wont resonate with everyone, but for me, I was most certainly coddled a fair amount before being kicked out into the real world. In school there was always a schedule, a list of activities, places to go, people to go to the dance with. Heading off to a university was no different, if Im being honest. Sure, I cried a bit dropping my parents off at the airport after move-in day but my life was still pretty safe and structured for those next four years while I got a bachelors degree. If you think about it, the North American bubble offers a lot of safe options that protect you from having to really understand whats going on. You work in your typically structured job, learn how to pay rent and avoid moving because you hate packing, and go to the same restaurants and bars because you like the feeling of being a regular. Humans are creatures of habit. Change is hard, yes, but we do these things primarily out of fear. Not in the fear-for-your-life kind of way, but in the fear-of-the-unknown way. The other definition of fear is " the feeling of anxiety concerning the outcome of something. We humans hate not knowing what comes next. We love habits and routines because if we do the same thing all the time, we wont have to deal with any surprises. The outcome feels like its guaranteed simply because weve done it before.