The last time I wrote I was sitting in Auckland awaiting my flight out. I meant to post some wrap up kind of stuff but I spent to be honest most of the months since my return wrestling with the heavy question of “Now what the hell do I do?”. I kept trying to write but before I could process my trip and answer this question it just didn’t feel right.

So when I left for New Zealand I absolutely didn’t know what to expect. I seriously, had no idea what wonderful thing my “quarter life crisis” had caused me to flee into.

I assumed it would be a one off trip and that I was just killing some time between jobs. During those three months I met so many fantastic people who had found happiness in ways I never thought possible. People who gave up on the dream that a car and a paycheck would buy them happiness. They traveled the world by bike or foot or car. They set out to entertain, learn, teach or work on farms. I started seeing all kinds of ways I could be happy and saw travel (and bike touring) as something that needed to be a part of my life going forward.

I am super thankful for everyone I met on the road who inspired me and helped me look at life a little differently. They were the people I talked about more than how annoying the wind was, if you were paying attention.

Anyway, I’m already excited for and vaguely making plans for my next big trip but for now it’s back to the working world. I could (and might?) write a post about how I went from apathetic software consultant to where I am now but the skinny of it is that I’ve moved to Boston Massachusetts to join a social enterprise working on software primarily for community health workers in underserved areas of the world. That’s a mouthful, sorry. I wanted to use my abilities and passion to make the world a better place for people and would prefer to not hear someone say the words “business value” again so this felt like quite the match for me. It’s an adventure of it’s own but not one to be detailed here.

For now expect a couple wrap up posts (finally!) and I’ll post about my shorter trips as I explore the New England area on my Surly.