It was in New York City, dead-of-winter 2005, when we—Amanda, Jen and Holly—found ourselves in the midst of a collective quarter life crisis. Sure, 20-something burnout may sound a tad to silly to anyone born before the advent of MTV, Atari or Guess jeans, but long workweeks at stress-driven offices had taken their toll. Despite having creative gigs that fueled our passions, we were frustrated that we'd let our careers become our identities. We were starving for real connections with family, friends and significant others—who wants to date a woman already married to her job?It turns out, we weren't alone. Like millions of young women in our generation, we were plagued with doubts about the paths we were choosing. Though intense workdays left us little time for contemplation, we often found ourselves asking: What exactly were we doing with our lives? Could we ultimately commit to one career, city and lifestyle (and man), when so many opportunities lie before us? On our own, with no parents, advisers or a syllabus to guide us, you could say that we were a little, well, Lost. Okay, very Lost. So before making the ultimate choice of which way to go as (gulp) adults, we decided to take a major detour, one we hoped might provide a little insight into these questions and just maybe, a road- map to our futures.
Kissing our jobs, boyfriends, apartments, families and our beloved Manhattan goodbye, we officially became "The Lost Girls," and started making plans for a yearlong, 35,000-mile journey around the globe.
Loosely building an itinerary that begins in South America and crawls eastward through Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and Australia, we plan to explore the cultures, mindsets and lifestyles of our international counterparts, getting to know thousands of strangers so we may better know ourselves. We have no idea what the next year will hold—or where the future will lead us—but we can't wait to start the journey. The Lost Girls' trip kicks off on June 20, 2006. We hope that you'll stick with us every step of the way.
Click this link to go back to The Lost Girls homepage and travelogue.
HI HOLLY...this is cousin Jaime. Good luck on your adventure...I can't wait to see all of your pictures and stories of your travels. You go Corbett! love and cheer...Jaime
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty amazing. I'm glad I stumbled upon your blog -- I'll be reading and commenting along on your adventures.
ReplyDeleteOh, and if you should want to stop by Thailand, I might be able to help out with information and such. I'm Thai and, other than a six-year childhood stint in the USA, have lived there all my life.
Right now I'm living in Spain, so if you ever decide to trot into the country I'd be happy to ask my (Spanish) husband and his parents for great inside tips. They're quite the travelers. :)
Hi girls, you have been schnozed. Check out the review :).
ReplyDeleteWow! I was just blogging the other week about my doubts and worries and that I thought I was having some kind of early-life crisis. Someone commented calling it a quarter-life crisis. You're right it's totally common and I really like the way you decided to combat it, or even just delay the decisions that set your life course by seeking the wisdom somewhere around the world to make those decisions.
ReplyDeleteI don't think my husband would want me to take the same approach as you girls. I hope you find some knowledge and joy and wisdom in your travels!
I am so excited that I came across this blog! We did the same thing, but with opposite destinations. At 25, I wondered where my life was going in North Carolina - and I decided that my answers were in New York City.
ReplyDeleteHi Girls, I love your page! When the trip is over, will life be ever the same? I mean, not being on the move anymore?
ReplyDeleteWish you the best!
-Ethan
Backpacking on Little Money
First of all, toasts to you all. Second of all, won't you answer that little riddle of how it is that yall were able to afford this adventure? You don't need to tell me details about your personal finances, but I would just really appreciate getting a clue about how to do it.
ReplyDeleteWhat an adventure! Where are you ladies now? I'm sure you girls are having endless fun exploring. As for me, I have covered most of the interesting (to me) spots here in the Philippines. Now Im trying to cover places abroad. It's a big world, still a heck lot of places to cover. Kudos to you three for being able to drop everything and just go. =)
ReplyDeletelike awesome!! well frankly... approaching mid-twenties and already 2 yrs into teh corporate world.. i too feel teh urge to break away from the monotonicity that palgues our lives.... dunno, whether i'd break away like you did.. but yeah wud do something abt it soon.. to save my sanity!!
ReplyDeletecheerio....
I have subscribed to your blog for about a month now. I have been enjoying your stories. I wanted to invite you to join the Twenty Something Bloggers blog ring that was recently started. I wrote about it yesterday on my blog. Twenty Something Bloggers
ReplyDeleteI also recommended you guys as a travel blog poppytalk was looking for travel bloggers
What a wonderful idea and I will go and check your travel story.
ReplyDeleteFrom your rout description, I could tell you didn't go to Europe? Well, your welcome over if you like to explore Norway and the Nordic countries:-)
I am currently on my own adventure in Europe and a friend suggested I check out your blog and article on starting a travel blog. I wanted to comment since you girls have such a great story and had lots of great tips! I too spent days on slow computers blogging away. Thankfully much of it was free since I stayed with family during part of my trip; but they were always making fun of me for being on the computer so much. Blogging starts to feel like your job -- only a really fun job you love doing!
ReplyDeleteI was in the same NYC media boat and actually lived there during the snowstorm in this pic! That almost looks like my street!
I am finishing up my two months in Europe and have been keeping up my own travel blog www.ashterstravels.blogspot.com It's been great and it's fun to see so many people with similar stories. I'll probably be back in NYC someday too; but I don't think it will happen just yet... :) The world is my playground!
All the best! Cheers to being lost abroad!
Ashley
I guess I'm a little late to the party, but glad to hear there's more like-minded people out there who needed a break from NYC. I'm about half way through my year long hiatus and doing it a bit differently but the spirit seems acutely familiar.
ReplyDeleteI won't promote my own writing as I'm sure you women are quite busy with your own but looking forward to staying in touch via Blogger.
Hey, excellent blog. I wish to do the same thing in my life couple of years down the lane. Good luck to you. Adventure is within a man, not outside. N you guys have it within you. Will life ever be the same again once this is over?? :)
ReplyDeleteBlessings and Love.
Hola Amigas!
ReplyDeleteI love what you ladies are doing.
Our story has a few parallels. Seven and a half years ago, my wife and I decided to shutter our business in Silicon Valley and check out of the rat race for a while and travel Mexico. We were your classic workaholic professional couple and had not had a 10 day vacation in more than 18 years!
During our three month trip, we wound up buying a fabulous modern Mexican villa on the shores of Lake Chapala where there is a decent sized English speaking expat population. We came home with the plan to sell our Los Gatos abode and get out of Dodge. Well, we did sell but like you, the market had softened and we got less than we would have if we had done so be for the trip.
But we are sooo glad we did what we did and have not looked back.
Inspire the world!
Happily Retired in Ajijic, Mexico
Joel and Sue
http://www.CasaPreciosaAjijic.com
woohoo!!! My idols! I'll be a constant watcher. I hope someday I'll be like you girls too. Ciao!
ReplyDeleteYour lives rock. I hope i don't need a quarter life crisis to start upon my tour of the world though.
ReplyDeleteI wish to be a travel writer too...congrats on the Travvies! :)
And have you'll already been to India??
I know that I'm way late to the start of your journey, but I'm so jealous of what you all did. I, too, have only been in the work force for 5+ years, but also experienced a level of stress that I didn't anticipate feeling when I was in a job that I didn't think would help to direct the rest of my life. I've since quit 2 jobs, and have decided to uproot from Boston and head out to San Diego. Life's too short to be dictated by work - congrats on your adventures, and thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteBest,
Suz (a.k.a. Lil' Boozie)
"3 Troopin' Travelers"
What a great idea. It also works well for a blog. I don't have money, but it would be a lot of fun to go around the world.
ReplyDelete