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Many reading this blog will find themselves wondering just what made me decide to quit my life in LA, leave my friends and family back in the states and wander the world for at least 11 months.  So I will lay it out for you: I was 24 and a half years old and going through what can only be described as my quarter-life crisis. I had done everything I was supposed to up until this point, I spent four years in college getting my BA, I secured a well-paying job, paid all of my bills on time, dutifully called my parents every few days and kept my partying in check.

Then, I came to a random and sudden conclusion that Los Angeles was no longer the place that I wanted to hang my hat.  I agonized about my circumstances and options for days and then purchased a one-way ticket to Australia scheduled for six months from the date of my epiphany and figured the rest would fall into place. And it has…for the most part.

When I bought my one-way ticket I was still living in LA, paying my bills with an internet-based SEO job and looking to break into the acting industry. But LA wasn’t jiving with my touted love for travel and I realized that I could spend the next decade plugging away at my chosen career path (acting), blowing money in LA, and never actually act on my urge to travel the world.

At that point images began popping into my head of what my friends were doing: cute homes in cute neighborhoods with white picket fences and the whole works…2.5 kids and the dog named Rover…or is it Spot. Anyhow I digress. It occurred to me in crystal clarity that this right now is the most opportune time for me to fulfill my long asserted dream to simply travel and truly see the world. I am single, have few possessions, and have no children. What was I waiting for?!

So after several hours of hemming and hawing (and with a soundtrack of incessant moans from my roommate as she listened to me debate the issue over and over, and over, and over again – I even went so far as to make a long list of pros and cons) I went online and locked myself into the “round-the-world for a year” plan…naturally instant an panic attack greeted me on the other side of that purchase. But that has subsided for the most part (panic still hits me about three times a week) and I am busy getting everything in line for my year of traveling that starts on Nov 4th, 2008.