Taking Control

So I took one more step in fulfilling my New Year's Resolution this week. I called TasRail and told them I'm not interested in the position anymore. Basically the past couple months I've felt like I've been in limbo and at the mercy of the Australian government, letting them decide my future. At this point, six months into this country, it's fairly obvious my original plan is shot to pieces, and the prospects of staying here for another year and a half, despite the good money I would be earning, doesn't appeal to me. Declining the position felt like the right thing to do, as does my plan for the next year.

Now I wanted to keep this secret for a while, but I might as well put it out there. The tentative plan for this year is to work hard and save up as much money as possible until May, when I will depart Australia. I found a great and very cheap flight route that seemed like fate when I discovered it. I will fly from Sydney to Hawaii (about $375), stay there for two weeks, then catch another flight to Anchorage, Alaska (about $400). I'll travel and trek around Alaska and the Yukon, then make my way back home. I'm sure I'll end up going to Vancouver to break myself back into Canadian winter, and work for a year, and do this all over again.

Another part of my logic was the thought of being away from home for another two or three years if I kept traveling after Australia seemed like too long, and a stop back home was necessary to visit family and friends, see the mountains I love, and get a dose of the country I'd live in over any other. And this route gives me a chance to see a piece of it that I've never seen.