Clock is Tickin’
Tick, tock… tick, tock…
Like a child with a Christmas advent calendar, I stare at the app on my Android phone. Yeah, times have changes in my short 35 years on this planet. The app tells me I have “56 Days Left.” 56 days from now is Halloween. Some call it the “Day of the Dead” after the Parentallia, but I much prefer it related to the Festival of Samhain – or the Celtic “Summer’s End” festival. Seems a little more joyous, especially considered my fear of heights/planes and my need to fly to Central America in the morning. You see, I just don’t wish for a Summer’s End.
So 56 days seems entirely inaccurate. To be sure, the plane itself leaves in 56 days – at 5:30am to be exact. But my travels will begin on day 55 since I will have to be in Chicago early. Even still, I had better be ready long before Sunday, as Saturday will no doubt be a rockin’ Halloween costume party sprinkled in with my Going Away party (“Going Away” seems so…. sterile and unexciting). So I should expect to be mostly useless come Sunday, short of somehow finding my way to Chicago land. On that same note, I really shouldn’t expect to be productive on this Saturday, either. I’m confident the entire day will be a shit-show. This brings me to Friday. This is likely my last productive day – maybe I should say afternoon. Again, I’m confident once Friday evening rolls around, I won’t be much in the mood for packing.
So what is closer to reality, …like 53 days away?
Yikes.
“For what exactly?” you may ask.
When my plane lands I will find myself standing at the San Pedro Sula airport immigration desk (hopefully) located in central Honduras. Six hours later after a few buses, taxis, and ferries, I should find myself on the tiny, yet familiar island of Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras. Regular readers of the blog know my affinity for this island, and my frequent return trips. Only this time it is different. I won’t have a home to return to once I leave the USA. Everything will be focused going forward – where the next step takes me on the path.
I’m calling it “Chapter Four.”
First step of the path is completing my first professional level scuba certification. Hopefully by the first of December I will be a certified PADI Divemaster. A few weeks later, just before the Christmas holidays, I will hopefully complete my PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor certification. From there he path gets a little less clear. I’m basically free to go work anywhere in the SCUBA industry at this point, but my guess is at this point I will stick around Utila and complete a Master Scuba Diver Instructor certification. Upon completion I should be entering the tourist season for Utila and likely won’t have difficulty finding work for the 2012 season. At the onslaught of hurricane season chances are I’ll be out of work, however, and looking to land on my next island. From there, the path is virtually unknown.
The plan, if you can call it that, is to follow the tourism season globally, landing on the next island just before they begin hiring staff for their busy season. Obviously I cannot control where it is I find work, but areas that I will focus upon will be Thailand, Vietnam, Bali, Fiji, Australia, Malaysia, Philippines, the Mediterranean (Greece), the Hawaiian Islands, as well as most the usual suspects in the Caribbean. Along the way my hope is to get a month or two off between stops to have the ability to backpack or cycle each of the areas, becoming intimately familiar with local customs, people, and countrysides.
My hope is to also document these travels to a certain degree, as time allows, both for the readers of BTLOSE as well as for pay via various travel publications, in addition to adding to my already-existing opportunities for writing about marine fish.
Exciting times lay ahead. Scary times lay ahead. This should be fun. Wish me luck…
i hope things are going according to plan and that you’re having fun.
congratulations!