Getting unstuck: How a shy waterford man became a bold adventurer

I’ve spent the last five years of my life traveling all around the world. Just recently I wrapped up a 44-month trip that saw me visit 36 countries without taking a single flight. I haven’t had a boss since 2010. And I now live in Amsterdam, my favourite city in the world.

But let’s flash back eleven years.

There I was, a very shy and unassertive 22-year-old virgin. I’d dropped out of college two years prior, and had since been working a dead-end job at a department store in Waterford. I saw the world as a scary and uncertain place, so much so that I’d recently passed up an invite to the 21st birthday party of one of my best friends, because the party was in Kilkenny and sure jaysus that was a town very far away and unfamiliar.

I went to work five days a week, sometimes six, clocked in and did what I was told. On my days off I drank cider, played video games, and watched porn. It was an easy and predictable existence. There were no big surprises, no major responsibilities. The only issue was the occasional, nagging feeling that I was wasting my life away.

I worked at the department store with people in their forties and fifties. Nice people. They were married, had families, earned a decent living selling shirts and stacking shelves. They seemed happy with their lot in life. One day it dawned on me that if I kept doing what I was doing, I would end up just like them.

Except I wouldn’t be happy.

I knew I couldn’t wake up one day as 50-year-old and look back fondly on a thirty year career at a department store. The thought of it scared the shit out of me.

So I did something drastic.

Shy, unassertive, 22-year-old me, the same guy who was scared to travel to Kilkenny for a birthday party, decided to quit that department store job, pack his bags, and leave the country.

I spent that summer working a minimum wage job and living in a trailer park in the United States. I roomed with a strange Polish dude who loved Calvin and Hobbes and collected his girlfriend’s paycheck.

It was the best summer I ever had.

I say that because, despite the low pay, poor accommodation and weird roommate, I felt like I was finally becoming the person I wanted to be: someone who faced fear and took action; someone who would wake up one day as a 50-year old and be proud of all he’d done and how far he’d come.

I broke out of my shell big-time that summer. I built confidence, developed social skills, made lots of new friends and even lost my virginity (high five!). I ended up staying in the States for ten months before returning to Ireland. Then, feeling more self-assured and focused than ever before, I went back to college and aced my final two years to earn an honours degree.

And that snowball has just kept on rolling. It’s taken me everywhere I wanted to go the past several years, given me everything I have.

If you can identify with that 22-year-old me from eleven years ago, if you’re feeling stuck yourself right now, if your head is wrecked and you can’t shake the feeling that there must be more to life than what you’re currently experiencing… why not do what I did?

That is: go away for a while.

Getting away really shakes up your worldview and helps you figure out what to do with your life. It puts things in perspective and does wonders for your mental health. So, if you’re not sure what else to do, consider going abroad. Save up enough for a plane ticket and secure a job, any job, even if it means taking a few steps down the career ladder or working for minimum wage.

Here, I’ll make it easy for you, in case you don’t know how to get started: check out this website for information and opportunities related to teaching English abroad. That’s one of the easiest jobs you can do and qualify for.

Go teach English for a year in Asia, Latin America or the Middle East. I’m not saying that doing so will solve all your problems, but it will help you learn a lot about yourself and the world, and get your own snowball rolling.