About Me
I have always been a bit of a planner. A listmaker. I grew up in the southern suburbs of Sydney, Australia, with dreams of becoming a music teacher and teaching ballet to five-year-olds on Saturday mornings. By the time I was studying Communications at University, there was a 10-year business plan and dreams of power suits, corporate lunches and a house full of designer furniture.
After graduating in 2001, I moved into PR and Events Management and life began – car repayments, credit cards, gym memberships and all the plastic cards that seem to tie people to a particular place in life. Friends seemed to couple off two-by-two like the animals on Noah’s Ark and I became claustophobic from my office cubicle with too many walls and no sunlight. Not even my amazing ‘champagne and celebrity’ events job could keep me from being bored.
I had never had a huge urge to travel – I just needed a holiday. But looking at brochures in travel agents was addictive. I read everything I could to try and create a shortlist of ideal destinations. My only roommate and younger sister could barely navigate her way to the kitchen for all the travel paraphernalia that had taken up residence in our small two bedroom flat.
It definitely wasn’t a small world after all – there was too much to do and I decided I wanted to do it all. To my friends this was insane, and no amount of cajoling would convince them otherwise.
“But it’s like living your whole life in the bathroom without ever seeing the rest of the house,” I said. “Wouldn’t you want to see the rest of the house?”
“No,” the friend said, shaking her head vehemently. “I like my bathroom. It’s such a nice bathroom – can’t you just leave the door open and peek out every now and then?”
“Uh, no because there’s a hallway in the way and you can’t really see…um, oh whatever.”
So another list began – temples in Laos, Everest base camp in Nepal, wildlife in Africa, pyramids in Egypt, Christmas in New York. I worked in the sister’s coffee shop on weekends and stopped buying shoes. The travel agent realised I was actually going to spend money instead of stealing free brochures and took my name off the security watchlist.
And now to what I do best – planning. The list has grown somewhat, and it’s the plastic cards and not necessarily the emotional strings attaching me to Sydney that are taking the longest to cut. I am not sure how long I will be on the road for and I have no idea what to expect when I return, but if nothing else, I can start every dinner party conversation with, ‘well, I know when I was feeding infant lions in Kenya…’.
Ok, well maybe not. But hey, if there are any hot guys around you can bet those lions are going to make an appearance.
-Sarah
Sarah