Growing up, but not really

This whole Japan thing (thankyou for all the congratulations!) has made me think a lot about growing up and life paths and making decisions and all those boring adult-y things. Because in fact, part of my desire to go to Japan was to avoid the whole 'getting a real job and settling down' type of thing that most people do after finishing uni. It just happened to be that I really wanted to run away and live overseas but I didn't want to work in a pub in England or a ski field in Canada, I wanted to do something worthwhile and useful.

And the more I've thought about it the more reasonable it seems for me to live all over the world, teaching English and volunteering and having fantastic experiences. I'm giving myself at least 5 years before I really need to make any big decisions about what I'm going to do with my life, and maybe in those 5 years I'll have fallen in love with teaching, a certain country or culture and have it all figured out. If not, I'll come back to Melbourne, go back to Ikea (I would love to say I'm joking but really..) and sort myself out then, and I'll still only be 27!

So here's to the act of growing up as a result of doing something childish like running away.