The Journey to Around the World

As I sit here, the day before embarking on the 6-month Around the World cruise, I find myself reflecting on how exactly I got here. Yes, you may be thinking - 'Lan, you drove from Michigan to Miami. If you already forgot that, maybe you should go get a check-up before getting on the boat...' But I don't mean how I physically got to this place, instead, the choices and decisions made over the past many years that allowed me to be here, sitting poolside at a very fancy and beautiful resort, with my new hat and Stitch by my side, listening to the birds making noises that are neither in sync nor calming and the single pool swimmer slamming his hands into the water surface as if they were sledgehammers breaking up concrete. Just amazing to be existing in this moment.

Now, back to the reflection as many people have remarked at how young I am to be able to take this trip, implying it should be impossible for

me. Notwithstanding that I color my grays so I am forever 30-something, but I've tended to respond with something along the lines of - "I don't have kids, I'm not married, I don't have pets and I don't own property." Reading that, I sound lovely - maybe that's why it's called SINK (Single Income - No Kids); I get to plummet into my own dreams without any resistance. Yeah, that definitely sounds better.

As you're reading this, you might be thinking that you know other SINKs that aren't able to drop everything and go vacation for a year. So I still haven't gotten to the real answer, but not having to support children is definitely near the top of why I'm financially stable at the moment. What other reasons could there be? Next up is that with my job, I moved A LOT. After graduating college, I worked in the Nuclear Industry supporting outages, but longer term outages, where we would live in a new place for up to 12 months. This lifestyle forced me to be a minimalist or at least not to get too attached to any stuff - I've even gotten rid of my shot glass collection at this point, which at the peak was somewhere over 200 knick-knacks. (I collect stickers now; much more space friendly.) In this last move, I finally had to transfer ownership of my giant round chair that had been with me since my very first house in 2008. Along with that, when I moved to Canada, due to my Citizenship status (and that housing pricing near Toronto is very expensive), I wasn't able to buy a house there. All of these factors, and quite a few more too mundane to type out, created a mindset of not being attached to a physical place or physical belongings. The house thing also meant that once I sold my Virginia house, I had quite a bit of liquid capital sitting in the bank.

No kids, no partner, no pets, no property, no car, but I do have money, a plan and a budget. If I ever get around to prioritizing finishing writing my book, you'll be able to read more about this phase of my life, but for now, I'll summarize by saying 2020 forced me to reframe my mental being - Seriously, I spent many hours reading the self-improvement books at 5 AM, gulping coffee, and mapping out what truly made me joyful. You know all the mushy stuff about values and ideals and tracking happy days. The result - I most value travel and being in control of my own schedule. (I'm sure many of you are thinking - 'duh'. But yes, it took me many hours to figure this out on my own). At the time of this earth-shattering discovery, I had been working a ridiculous amount of hours and all free time seemed to be spent cleaning a house much too big for a SINK. However, I couldn't just change that overnight, so I sketched out a plan - or pLAN as my ex would say (get it? my nickname is Lan...) - and yes, it involved a few spreadsheets.

Top of the priority list was defining my Bucket List and working out a budget to afford the Around the World cruise, but without sacrificing other travel in the years leading up to the cruise, even if that resulted in having to delay the cruise by a few years. In my initial draft, starting in 2023, I could earn enough to comfortably go on the 6-month cruise in 2027, while still adventuring the years between. It was such a great plan and a really cool spreadsheet - There's a version of it available on my Website on the Bucket List page.

Well, then life happens, as it does - I moved (again). This time, to Canada, which came along with a Work Visa that clearly stated I could work for my company for 3 years. Once that expired, my company would have to request an extension or I would be asked to leave the country. This situation made me anxious, so I decided to apply for Permanent Residency so I could be more in control of my destiny. Well, Canada didn't quite agree. I figured with my age, income, position, etc. I'd be a shoo-in to be invited to apply. I was wrong. After various tests and certifications, I was still scored very low compared to the pool of applicants. This seemed to be due to the government prioritizing people with family who were already Canadian citizens or who spoke French. Given my SINK status and only knowing a few key French phrases, I was not optimistic about controlling my destiny in Canada and started thinking about an exit strategy.

One last point to make as I continue to bounce around in this reflection, since I had been watching this Cruise for about a decade, there was a pattern that I was most interested in - Even years, the ship went through the Mediterranean and odd years, it went around Africa. I wanted an Odd year. Convinced that I'd eventually travel through Europe more or potentially live there, I wanted to go on a Safari! As my budget already predicted, I would be able to go in 2027; an odd year. The stars were aligning!

I submitted my interest form to the Oceania website to hopefully get on a list to get first pick to get a solo cabin on the 2027 adventure, which was what my pricing was based on. The itineraries are released about 2 years in advance so in March 2025, I found out that my long awaited dream was no longer feasible. Oceania changed up the ship and the route for 2027 - it went an extra 60 days and the solo cabins were moved up to the concierge level, meaning my budget was detonated - completely destroyed. Plus it no longer started and stopped in the same place, disqualifying it, at least to my precise brain, from being "Around the World."

Bummer.

Then a shimmer of an idea lit, rapidly generating puzzle pieces falling into place, creating a picture of me on top of the World!

The idea - Why not go in 2026?

Reasoning:

1. My Work Visa expired in 2026 anyway. (Yes, I know it would likely have been easily extended)

2. The pricing for the 2026 cabin, even not solo was still within my budget ($135,000 for those wondering).

3. And finally, I couldn't seem to wait any longer.

And with that, the rest is history - or at least seemingly very quick wrap up - I resigned from my job, giving them 6 months notice, sold or donated most of my belongings, moved back to the States, and mostly couch surfed until it was time to load up and head south.

Which brings me back to my current state of being - still sitting at the same table with my hat and Stitch, but there are more swimmers in the pool and the birds seemed to have exhausted their voices.

And with that - I think I'll go join the swimmers since the sun is out and it's 76F (24C)!

Until next time...

PS - I have decided a need a wrap up slogan for future blog posts. Any ideas?