Gairdner said:
Man, I could never even dream of doing what you're doing but I don't mean that as criticism. Not in the slightest. In fact, quite the opposite as compared to your mindset, I am clearly 'sin cojones'. I sincerely hope you achieve everything you set to and enjoy the hell out of it along the way. Grab life and go, sir!
I think we all have a different mindset, you start talking "permanent contract", "Mortgage", "long term relationship" and see how fast I get the hell out of dodge! (not a joke!)
My life path has been very rocky, as I've said in the original post, but to add to that, I've had some very close calls with death, which means everything in life becomes relative, one day you'll die.
So until that faithful day, grab those cojones and live, you could get hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow.
My main problem is that I'm often overconfident (in certain areas), fear is something, like death, that I take for granted. I can bungee jump without hesitation. (even my first time), ride roller-coasters like I ride the tube. I don't get that "rush". (and I worked with too many junkies to try drugs!)
So yeah, maybe throwing myself into the deep-end is just trying to get a rush out of life, maybe I'll get hit by a bus on the way to Prague, but the same can happen 100ft from my house, so it might as well be Prague.
I've only ever met one person with a similar mindset, and she as a women in her early 40s has been travelling solo through the whole of South America for the last 6 years. (including Colombia, Mexico, Brazil etc..).
Her path in life resembles mine, lots of close calls with death, has worked on as barmaid, ship crew, hotel chain management and pharmaceutical companies.
She chucked it all 6 years ago, and has no intention of ever coming back.
As the Chinese saying goes "May you live in interesting times!"