Sharing Travel Experiences

Travelling a Little Adrift with Shannon

by Andy Hayes

Today we have with us Shannon from A Little Adrift, who is…well, a little adrift travelling around the world. She parted some time to spare with us and tell a bit about her adventures. They’re pretty intense — see for yourself…

Could we start by a brief introduction?

I’m 25 years old and about eight months through a year-long trip around the world. I grew up in Florida and decided to try my hand in Los Angeles after college with aspirations for the entertainment industry. Every city has its redeeming qualities, but I’m certain that I am not cut out to be an Angeleno. I found my self hermiting in my apartment and wallowing in a bit of self-pity in late May of 2008 and going through what I affectionately term my quarter-life crisis. I dreamed of actually making good on all of my assertions that I like to travel but let the perceived costs dissuade me. I work from the internet though and this one fact pushed me actually consider leaving my day-jobs behind and making a living through Web-work. It sounds a little cheesy but I prepped myself for the “big purchase,” my one-way ticket to Australia, by reading a lot of popular travel books like Eat, Pray, Love and The Alchemist – I’m fiercely passionate about reading, so these books put me in the perfect state of mind to just go for it and make the decision to travel around the world for a year.

The desire to travel dates back pretty far; my dad has always dreamed big and loves to learn a lot of highly specialized and minute facts about places and people from all over the world. From the moment I left the house at 18, rosy-cheeked and college bound, he ensured that a National Geographic subscription has followed me the four years at University. Then, I spontaneously decided to move three thousand miles away to Los Angeles – and even in LA there was a National Geographic waiting in my mail box when I arrived –I’d say that probably has a bit to do with my wanderlust!

You document your travels and travails on the website, A Little Adrift. What’s the significance of the title?

The name for the blog actually took me a bit of time to settle on – I jive with the whimsy of the title. I like to think of myself as adrift (makes me feel better than using the word “lost!”) and just bobbing along on my life journey. Before I left on this trip I was really focused on nailing down a career and trying to find a job that I was passionate about and could envision working at 40+ hours a week…the problem is, that’s never been something that I want for myself. For a long time I was just drifting down the “right” path (university, career, family, etc) instead of really finding something about which I was passionate – travel. Traveling like this, for a year, has made me comfortable with the fact that I don’t have to have a firm plan with everything figured out –it’s so much more fun and satisfying for me to just be a little adrift from what I have always thought of as the “right” path.

Nearly 3/4th’s of the way through your current journey, do you feel like you’ve achieved what you set out to do? How do you feel?

Oh no!!! Don’t remind me….it feel’s unreal that so much time has passed. That’s one of the paradoxes of long-term travel you feel like time is flying by, but then conversely I feel as though I haven’t been on US soil in ages. As for how I’ feeling, that’s a tough question; I set out with a sort of muddled purpose that I didn’t really understand. I bought my ticket and planned my RTW trip because I knew that I needed to travel and leave the microcosm of the US. People just don’t travel as much in the US – we don’t have a term for “gap year”; traveling’s not as ingrained in our culture, so to break free of that mindset has been liberating. It’s been a bit of surprise the whole way through to learn new things and really just surrender to the experiences (that’s a major prerequisite for traveling in India!). I guess I was seeking some sort of clarity and a peace of mind with my own choices – and I have gained that: an acceptance that although most of my college friends have husbands, houses, and babies, that’s not my path and that’s ok.

A lot of the things that I’ve learned about myself throughout this journey are subtle – it’s been a lot of acceptance of myself, flaws and all. Traveling in Asian and India are some of the most in-your-face experiences and you have to overcome a lot of the Western-style conventions for life…namely the fact that time is flexible and what’s the hurry?! There is a part of me that is a structured, rule-following Type A-er – Asia bent me over it’s knee and beat those traits out of me…

As for being three quarters of the way through this trip – I am missing my family pretty fiercely! A year in one stretch is actually really long time; I’ve never for a moment regretted the choice to leave for this long and take such an extensive tour of the world, but there is a weariness creeping in right about now that comes and goes. I am psyched for the six countries I have left and know that each of them has something amazing to share…and once they share it with me, I am headed back across the Atlantic to give everyone I love a big hug

What’s been the most inspirational point of your tour?

I gained a lot of clarity throughout my three months traveling through South Asia, Nepal in particular. Essentially, every experience and new person here gently led me on a path toward a self-contentment of sorts. I spent four weeks living in a small Newari village outside of Kathmandu, Nepal teaching English to young monks. I was immediately contended with pitch black evenings due to a rigid power management system and the “smile warmly” philosophy when confronted with stooped and grinning Nepali men waylaying me in the road for a bit of a chat and a chai. My monastery was perched on the top of a very steep hill and filled with roughly 40 of the poorest children in Nepal who live at the monastery and attend classes. One of the older monks, Lucky, set me on a spiritual journey of sorts; he was prepping for his English University entrance exams while I was volunteering and we spent hours discussing everything from current events to the core beliefs of Tibetan Buddhism. On his recommendation I read “The Four Noble Truths” by the His Holiness the Dalai Lama and it was particularly amazing to have my own personal interpreter into the rudiments of this complicated belief system.

Lucky was passionate about his beliefs and each day perched ourselves on the stoop in front of the classrooms huddled in our jackets –there was still quite a chill in the air! The dictionary was always just an arm’s length away so that he could effectively communicate some of the more complex nuances of Buddhism in his cautiously accurate English.

The teaching position at the monastery allowed me to integrate myself into their daily routines and prepped me mentally for the grueling process of a ten-day Vipassana Meditation course. The course took place at a spectacularly pretty lakeside meditation center where I read through the list of rules, everything from no speaking/communicating in any form to fasting in the evenings…then signed my name on the dotted line and agreed to hand myself over to the center for ten full days without the possibility of leaving.

I am not going to lie – I had an extremely hard time by about day five. The Vipassana process involves more than ten hours a day of silent meditation followed by more silence, a bit of food, and sleep…all of this began to drive me crazy and I begged to leave. Long story short though, I stayed through to the end and felt the payoff by day eight. One of the core teachings involves eliminating personal suffering by overcoming aversion and craving…Vipassana can be used as a balancing of sorts. With all of that meditation time (nearly 100 hours!) I walked away from it with a deep feeling of contentment and equanimity inside of me that wasn’t there previously…and an intense desire to talk a lot.

My experiences in Nepal really grounded me in the present moment and also brought me a lot of clarity and acceptance for who I am and how I have chosen to live this year of my life…even if it’s a tad bit different from the mainstream.

How will your travels change what you do and how you do it in the future?

Traveling extensively like this has done anything but quench my wanderlust…and I really thought that it would when I set out eight months ago! I’ve never been fond of the traditional nine-to-five workday and I think that I’ve discovered through all of this traveling that there are so many opportunities out there for me to be doing something that I love and that I can actually make enough money to support myself with non-traditional means if that’s what it takes to be passionate about where I am and what I am doing.

With that being said, I’m also seriously considering grad school at some point in the next couple of years –I really love formalized learning (call me crazy, I know!) and actually sometimes yearn for the more structured environment of classes and coursework.

What will still be on your travel to do list once you’ve finished touring?

I head home in October and then plan to actually save up a bit of money for a few months and then head out again. The tentative plan is to head to South America in January for several months, head home for summer and then poke around Central America for about three months. Nearly every time I see a new place and meet new people, it adds at least three more destinations to my list. One of the fantastic benefits of backpacking is the interaction with others; the world seems so much smaller when you have friends dotted everywhere!

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Wow, what an incredible story. A quarter-life crisis, reading two of my favourite books, and a spiritual retreat. I’d love to have the same experience – or even a slice of it. Just incredible.

Thanks for stopping by Shannon and sharing your experiences. Yet another inspiration!