The First One

Aside from the introduction this is my first blog post. It has taken a good four to five hours of procrastination before finally putting pen to paper so to speak but finally here it is.

I am currently living ‘at home’ with my Father. In your twenties and perhaps even early thirties you can get away with still being in the parental nest but there comes an age when it gets a bit sad to admit you live at home.  However, it is only a temporary solution and I have been home for three weeks or so and I have only another week before I am off travelling. Again, I feel like ‘travelling’ is something that is easier to say when you are in your twenties and people are understanding and forgiving of you wanting to spread your wings and see a bit of the world. Being mid-thirties, single and childless saying you are off travelling screams that I want to go on a ‘journey’ to ‘find myself’. Luckily for me I already know where and who I am. I am going to South America for a couple of months because I am 35 and single and I can.

Speaking to my parents friends who are in their 50’s and 60’s all of the women are so very supportive and encouraging that I should do this. As was more common for their generation, girls got married young, had children young and travelling the big wide world was not an option that was even considered. With age comes experience and knowledge so I am firmly taking on board their wisdom and buggering off to South America.

One of the questions I am getting a lot at the moment is- ‘are you organised for your trip?’ I don’t understand the obsession with being organised. I’m a fairly unorganised person on the surface: my bedroom still resembles that of a teenager, my wardrobe is full of mismatched outfits resulting in people assuming I got dressed in the dark, I have no idea what direction my life is going in and yet in my heart I feel completely calm and at ease. It’s as if I am trying to hide the organised person within me. Like a fat person who says there is a thin person within them trying to get out. Likewise, I have an organised person within me, simply desperate to show on the surface.

My answer to the eternal question is- ‘well, I’ve bought my flight’. That to me is organised. I’ve bought my ticket, had my yellow fever jab which allows me into the place. I’m flying to Peru with a friend and we are spending two weeks there together. After that, she flies home and then who knows. My poor Father knows better than to ask me what my plans are as he knows my answer will be to tell him- ‘I’ll decide the day when I get there’. I may stay in Peru, I may go somewhere else. After all, the world is my oyster, innit?