Travel Between Responsibilites

We all love watching travel and lifestyle shows. We love reading blogs where people travel to different places everyday. We dream about the time we can drop everything – school, work, you name it – and travel the world. But with all the responsibilities we have, and continue to pile up, it is unlikely that we will find the right time.

In the past we always said that one day we will travel. After high school. After university. After our kids are grown-up (yes, we think years ahead). Traveling to different parts of the world was this goal that kept getting pushed back.

Then one day we were talking to a friend and she asked us the thing we would do if we can do anything. One of the things we came up with was to travel the world. That conversation was short but sweet; once again we are thinking about traveling.

It got us thinking about our passions and following our dreams, while still holding on to the realities of daily life. We decided that we are going to make it work. On January almost three years ago, we whipped up the school calendar and circled the days that are available. It turns out there were many. It won’t be easy to go and travel, but because we love it so much, we decided we would give it a go.

We do a lot of things. We work twenty hours a week, take five classes, are involved in clubs and volunteer organizations. Some people ask us: how do you find the time?

Well, we have only 24 hours in a day, just like everybody else. We know what we are passionate about and we manage our time in a way that will allow us to travel. Sometimes we arrive home just a few hours before we had to go to do something, but we still manage to do well in our school and work (it helps to sleep in the plane).

If you, like us, have a lot of different things going on but would still like to travel, we only have one advice for you: try it. Print out your schedule and circle the dates you may be available. Your plans are going to change, it always does, but just knowing that there is a window of five days here, a week there, is enough.

Here is an example. One day you will look at your schedule and find out that you have five free days the next week; you check and book a last-minute flight deal somewhere, pack your bags, go and have a little mini-adventure in the middle of your responsibilities.

Alysta Lim & Athena Lim