a journey to peru

A few years ago I discovered that World Youth International organized trips to Peru called Soul Journey’s. I can’t recall now how I stumbled across the website, but some how or another I did, and I began to think about how cool it would be to travel to Peru and “find my soul”. This was at about the same I had finished high school, and was filling in my summer dreaming of my future before I had to start my university degree in Commerce.

The idea of traveling began to hide itself further in the back of my mind due to a hectic social life, my part time job, studying and my boyfriend.

However, about 12 months ago something changed in me. Everything I thought I wanted, I didn’t really want anymore. I had been working as a Management Account/Assistant to Financial Controller of a global investment company, I had great career opportunities, I had a good car and I lived in a beautiful St Kilda apartment. I was single and had the perfect social life. What more could a girl want? Everything material anyone could ever want, I had. But it wasn’t enough.

August last year, I packed up my life, jumped in my car and drove to Port Douglas, Qld. I lived there for 4 months, hung out with travelers/backpackers and was soon inspired to do some traveling of my own.

After making initial enquiries about Soul Journey’s, I was soon informed that the program wasn’t run anymore. But looking through the WYI site again, something drew me to the service projects on offer. I had always had the desire within me to help other people. For work experience in year 10, I opted to volunteer at a homeless shelter for women and children. And I even considered a career in Social Work before ideas of money and the corporate world clouded my thought processes. Even though I completed my Bachelor of Commerce degree, I still volunteered at the Royal Children’s Hospital one afternoon a week, helping out in the crèche.

Returning home to Melbourne in December, I moved to the Mornington Peninsula (away from the big city lights) and worked as a waitress. I had a pretty simple lifestyle and only ventured into Melbourne to catch up with friends or visit my family perhaps once a month. It was a time of change for me and I needed to figure me out!

I began planning my trip! Peru isn’t the only stop on my adventure. After my 3 month volunteer placement in an orphanage, I will be heading to Nicaragua to visit the girl I sponsor through World Vision (I began sponsoring her about 9 years ago), stopping by Texas, USA to catch up with a high school friend of mine and then on to Canada for a 12 month working holiday.

In terms of me, I guess I am just your average special person who wants to make a bit of difference in the world. I don’t want to change anyone’s lives; I just want to inspire others to “do good”! I live for the moment, I laugh a lot, I catch up with friends and I generally have a good time. Life’s short, you only get one chance at it. There’s a whole world out there that is waiting to be discovered. There are countries and cultures I know nothing about, but that I am interested to learn. Knowledge is an amazing gift and adventures play an important role in acquiring that.

I’ve reached the point in my life where I want to live for me. I want to live in the now and I want to experience as much as I can, while I can. I guess you could say that I have, for now, “figured myself out”. However, as I grow and I experience more of life’s lessons, there will be more “figuring out” to do. I’m of the opinion this “figuring out” is a continuous journey! But I’m lucky, I have discovered all this at an early age and I know that this knowledge is going to take me places I can’t even imagine right now.

I love children, they are the future, and they teach us so much about ourselves. The innocence of a child is simply amazing, and for that reason I love to be around them. I have a lot of love to give, but I also know the gift of love cannot be forced. I have a feeling these children are going to teach me more about life than I would ever be able to learn on my own. I get to help them, but really they will be helping me. And for that reason I am eternally grateful.