Why Travel?

My dad played a huge part on my nomadic lifestyle.  When my sibs and I were kids, we used to travel almost every month to different places and indulge on different cuisines because of my dad.  His reasons behind it is to let us explore life, develop our interests and personality, and not be left behind and be ignorant to what surrounds us.

That was then.  Until he retired from his company that he had worked for for so long, he was no longer enthusiastic on going out of the house.  I did several attempts, but to my dismay, all efforts were put into waste.  So I stayed home most of the time with him.  Work-home-work-home.. that was my lifestyle then.  Social gatherings wasn't an option too.  I only get to socialize or go out when there's an event at work.

And when he passed two years ago, it buried me at home completely.  I've been dragging myself to go to work and preferred to stay home for months that eventually reached for more than a year--due to mourning.  We were brought up to be independent so living alone is nothing new to me.  But getting used to having my dad at my side for a number of years (after leaving my city pad) was quite heavy on my part.  

Due to stress and boredom at my desk job December last year, I've decided to move on.  Help thyself is the only solution to get out of the sinkhole.  I left the company and took a risk.  With only little savings I had on my bank, I forced myself to move on.  Everything wasn't doing well.  Until I told myself that I have to stand up and chase my dreams and goals in life.   It's about time to pursue what will make me happier.  It's about time to focus on myself.  Then there goes my bucket list.  

One of which is to go back to acting, writing, filmmaking, which I, fortunately, had a blast middle of this  year and to date (except for filmmaking).  Make-up artistry comes next because I want to pursue prosthetic make-up some time, and, luckily, I got couple of make-up gigs this year and will have another one this November.  

Then focus on my culinary skills and, hopefully, put up my own restaurant, which I'm still working on today.  Too bad I'm still having a hard time looking for the right person to butt heads with (the one who would focus on the admin stuff--that I loathe, btw).  

And finally, TRAVEL.  It's been a while since I last traveled with the family, and I've been yearning for it.  Unfortunately, not everyone is available as they're busy with their own lives.  And with my friends, well, that is not an option too because they tend to back-out the last minute, which is not cool, or sometimes they always plan ahead and not finalize the trip until it's no longer talked about, OR not everyone likes adventure (I'm not that enthusiastic about shopping or luxurious-kind of travel.  I'm a nature-adventure traveler).  

To kick-start my traveling, I went to Coron, Palawan to celebrate my birthday back in April (oh, I think it was March), then Pampanga, Los Banos, Laguna, San Pablo, Laguna; went back to Corregidor after a decade, then most recently, Balete, Batangas. 

Since I don't earn that much from my side jobs and online baked goods thing, I don't have sufficient funds to go to other places, and add to the fact that I'm having a hard time tagging people along (because of the reasons I've mentioned prior to this paragraph).  I'm thankful I went to Meet Manila's launch and was able to meet fellow advocates and local tourism enthusiasts.  My Balete, Batangas trip was sponsored by Mayor Joven Hidalgo, and thanks, Meet Manila, for inviting me to be part of it as I finally met future travel buddies.  But for now, I'll save up tons of courage to travel alone this coming months, or maybe next year.  But the question is where?  Ugh.  I want to learn how to surf at Baler, but learning alone is not cool.  :| 

Going back to the title of this post:  Why travel?  My definition of traveling is to explore the culture, lifestyle, tradition, history and landmarks of a destination.  Capturing its beauty and sharing the experience through the written word makes a difference and, I believe, contributes to the society.  It serves as an eye-opener.  I'm an advocate of local tourism, livelihood, nutrition, and restoration and preservation of historical landmarks.  And I'd love to meet the locals--observe their way of life and they always..ALWAYS..serve as inspiration to me.  That's what my dad taught me (aside from trust and respect): explore, live, love, share, be grateful, and laugh.

As to quote myself:  "I don't travel just for leisure.  I travel with a purpose."

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I've been planning of coming up with a livelihood-nutrition program on different barangays or towns around the country where I'll come explore the abundant crops, plants, you-name-it; the lifestyle, culture and tradition of the locals, and teach them other ways to have a small business or on what to cook for their families in a very affordable yet very healthy way as possible.  If you happen to know anyone who's willing to do a collaborative effort, send me an e-mail at curlyscribbling[at]gmail[dot]com.  I'd love to hear from you and let's spread awesomeness to the society and create more jobs and promote tourism .  :)