Throughout the last couple of years, I've thought a lot about what I want to do. I guess it's kind of comes hand in hand with writing a blog; if I want my blog to be interesting enough for people to read, I need to make my life interesting. What that's meant is that I'm trying new things, searching for new experiences and challenging myself in ways that I might not otherwise have done. Frankly, I'm loving it.
Whilst I adore that side of my blog, I want my blog to be more. If that wasn't the case, I wouldn't have a section called "life" and I wouldn't write about the times when travelling, volunteering and life in general are crap. I want to be able to inspire people, whether it's to go try that thing they have been putting off, express themselves in a constructive way or whatever else. This is my way of changing the world, one person at a time. I think of it like the Ripple Effect: if I can inspire 10 people and they go on to inspire 10 people each, in effect I've inspired 100 people. How cool is that? Some friends have been extremely kind in telling me that I've inspired them in some way and I love knowing that I have the power to influence someone's life in a positive way.
A few months ago, I came to believe that I could do something really special. Eventually I thought of creating a business through Voluntraveller, where I would sell products I couldn't get when I was buying things for travelling. That business would send all profits to "The Voluntraveller Foundation" (I even created a logo, awkwardly drawn on a laptop and shown below) and I would volunteer for free, all my personal earnings coming from the original business. Whilst I wasn't entirely clear on what the charity would be (I had some ideas, but wasn't sure on how they would be achieved), this was going to be my something special. That vision remains a possibility, but I realised that special doesn't have to mean massive or even difficult and it definitely doesn't have to wait 15 years to be achieved. In fact, I can't think of anything more special or beautiful than making someone just that bit happier.
As it turns out, we all have the power be special.