This convo happened back in April before DP left the company to travel semi-permanently. We always took the first 5 minutes of our weekly 1:1 to chat about upcoming travel or adventure plans before talking about business, it made life more fun that way.
DP: Who are you going with for your crazy camping/hiking Vietnam adventure?
Me: I’m going by myself.
DP: Jess, your circle of friends is SO SO large. I don’t understand how you’re always going on these amazing adventures by yourself.
Me: I think my idea of vacation has changed from my local cohort in the past several years. I want to be active, scale mountains, raft down rivers, rappel into caves, be sweaty and dirty, and be in rainforests with leeches. Type II kind of fun.
I want to do things that are physically challenging and learn new skills while I still can and want to. Every time I’ve asked, my friends aren’t really interested in the activities I like and I don’t want to compromise or wait to do these things.
A lot of the things I’m doing now I’ve waited over 5+ years to get to do and I wasn’t even sure what I was waiting for. Besides, I’m never really by myself. I meet people along the way who have the same desires and goals. There’s always someone to share the adventure with.
DP: Oh that’s true.
I’m at Day 2 in Vietnam now, and it’s been awesome so far even though we haven’t started the main camping/trek that I came for.
I love getting to experience things like this that breathe life back into me.
