I have no shame in admitting how obsessed I am with my everyday views and adventures. I sometimes can’t justify not sharing with others the beauty that surrounds me on my side of the world. I always love to hear everyone’s opinions and read your responses on what I share with you. I read a lot of you tell me how I’m “living the life” and although I don’t necessarily agree with that phrase, as I believe I am just living my life, I understand it coming from an outsiders view. But one recent comment really got me thinking. “This is just a short time of your life, enjoy it while you can. You’ll be back home before you know it” Someone had said this on one of my recent posts. It makes me wish there were more open minded people in this world. People who aren’t afraid of making their lives an adventure. Who aren’t afraid to call somewhere unfamiliar home. It’s interesting to me, how someone can call this a short time in my life. Maybe I want this to be the long haul, and why can’t it be? 

Mike and I have had “the talk” way too many times these past few weeks. We have been trying to decide what to “do next”. Do we stay, or do we go? I have been trying to use logic and rationality to choose my answer. “We go” I’ve been arguing. “We go”, I say, so we can have stability when we return to the states. So we can have enough money to settle down on an apartment, car, and basic living needs. We can find jobs and work our asses off, “we go”, I’ve been arguing. 

But I haven’t truly been thinking as rationally as I thought I had been and because of that I’ve changed my argument. Now, I say “we stay” 

We already have a place to live here. We have jobs, two bikes, and basic living needs. We have mountains surrounding us and perfect dive sites below us. We live in paradise, we can work our asses off here just as much as we can work in the states, and though we’d make more money there, we make more memories here. I was looking for a rational future so we could fit in with the rest of the American society, instead of looking at the rational now that we’ve already started building. 

We stay, for our own well being. 

We aren’t afraid to call this place our home. We are two people just like you, except we bought one way tickets to a tropical island, and we’re making it work. We are making our lives here work, we are living our lives, not living the life. (What even defines “the” life anyway?)

So with that being said, it is official. We will be staying on Koh Tao for another 6 months, and than we will go back to the drawing board. 

We moved here with no set plans, one goal was for Mike to get his Dive Master, a professional divers certification. Now with that goal coming to a completion, it’s time for the next goal. I’d like to hope that it’s my turn, Mike has shared with me his passion for diving which I’ve learned to understand and love now on my own. My goal is to get on his level, he’s introduced me to the waters and I’d like to see myself becoming a professional diver along with him. We are here in Thailand, living day to day. We are finding more friends and more comfort on this island every day. We are home. 

Thanks Christine Albanese!