I have a plan

It was another ordinary evening in Montreal. The time was 8.45pm, and I decided it was home time after a nice reading session at Chapters bookshop where tonight my conscience finally kicked me in the gut and made me buy something. From the dark and the very very cold outside, I descended the steps leading to Peel station. As soon as my two feet reached the platform, however, a not-so-ordinary thought came into mind.

No no, not a thought.

A brilliant idea. An exciting prospect. A soothing hope that will help me get through the next 1.5 years in Sydney.

I'm going to live out of a suitcase, moving from city to city, starting 2009. Because if there’s one thing that has made me miserable so far in life, it’s settling down.

I have always wanted to ‘get out’ of a place since I was 10. First it was the school. Then it was the country. And after I have succeeded in achieving both, I wanted to do it all over again. As time passed by, the list of things I wanted to get out of grew longer and stronger. My spirit, on the other hand, slipped in the opposite direction.

I was not born as a backpacker, though. The thought of having to move into a new place every week is terrifying. The thought of having to make new friends every week is debilitating. The thought of having to sleep in a new bed every week is agonising. And to seal the no-deal off, I don’t have the physical strength required to be a backpacker.

Luckily, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And there is always more than one way to get around a problem.

A wise friend once said and has repeated himself since, “Being happy is a matter of perspective. It’s not the environment that makes you happy, it’s you who makes you happy.” Or something along that line. That’s one way.

The other is the suitcase way.

I think I know which one I'd choose. This is not a dream, this is a plan.