Maybe I was destined to travel far in life; I’ve lived in many different places and worked in various jobs before I was able to find my calling. I was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and at just two days of age, was taken to the Isle of Tiree, where my parents lived. Tiree was my home until I was eighteen and moved back to Glasgow.
I was the oldest daughter in my family and had a younger sister; together, we spent our childhood roaming the beaches, making sandcastles, and swimming in the sea. Although it was an idyllic place to live, the winters were harsh, and life often felt lonely. As a teenager, I dreamed of getting away and wanted to do more with my life.
After finishing school, I moved to Glasgow, which was my first spot in life. I studied business but dropped out of university after being diagnosed with anxiety and depression. I knew I was on the wrong path and had a succession of dead-end jobs, including stacking shelves and washing up. I didn’t know what to do with my life and wasn’t able to find meaningful work. I often compared myself to other people who seemed like they were more successful and happier than I was.
I also felt trapped by city life but wanted direction and purpose in my life. In 2008, I decided to go back to college and studied art and graphic design. In 2010 I was still unable to find the type of job I wanted and decided to leave Glasgow for good. After reading a book called ‘Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway,’ I applied for a working holiday visa to New Zealand and booked a one-way ticket.
That was the start of my travels, and some would say I caught the travel bug. I lived in New Zealand for a year, followed by two years in Australia. I took whatever jobs I could find to save money to keep traveling, including months and months of fruit picking, vineyard work. I worked as an au pair and in an ice cream shop. Eventually, my visa ran out, and I had to come back to the UK.
After returning to the UK, I got a job on the Isle of Scilly at the bottom of England, where I worked as a kitchen assistant for two years. I wondered whether I had finally found my spot in life or whether this was just another temporary home. After the café I was working in closed for the season, I decided to do some voluntary work in a Buddhist center, where I met lots of interesting people, including a girl from Taiwan.
She told me about a walk she was planning to do called ‘The Camino de Santiago,’ a 560-mile walk that spanned the whole length of Spain. The trial begins in St. Jean Pied de Port on the French border and finishes at a cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. The walk sounded amazing and like an excellent challenge. I started researching the Camino de Santiago on the internet and knew that I would walk it at some point in my life.
The Camino often has a transformational effect on people, and I read lots of stories about people who were able to make dramatic changes to their lives after doing the walk. I still felt a bit lost and like I wanted to change my life or find my spot in life. However, life took me in a different direction, and I had to return to Glasgow to have a small operation. I then ended up in another bad job and worked for two years as the “unofficial†assistant manager of a charity shop. The shop raised money for people who had been diagnosed with terminal illnesses. I liked the idea of working for a good cause, but the shop was often manic. I had to sort through piles of donations, which was often rubbish, including tattered and dirty clothing and broken bric-a-brac.
I felt miserable in this job and rushed off my feet as we were often short-staffed. I had to run the shop by myself and deal with people haggling and an old man who turned into a stalker. Once I even found a gun hidden at the bottom of a bag of donations and had to call in the police. All these situations brought lots of anxiety.
I knew I didn’t want to be stuck working in the charity shop forever and often Google ‘how to make money online,’ which is how I found my calling. I started doing some freelance writing on the side and also kept in touch with my friend from Taiwan.
By this time, she had walked the Camino and told me all about her adventurers. I often fantasized about escaping from my life and wanted to walk the Camino myself. I even ordered a guidebook with maps and decided I would do it one day. It seemed like a distant dream for years, and I kept putting off quitting my job as I wanted to save money.
It also seemed like there was a lot of unemployment in Glasgow, and I didn’t know where I’d find a new job after returning from the Camino. I often thought that I was lucky to have a job, even although it was terrible. That is until things got much worse and a customer threatened to punch me.
The same week a pair of walking boots were handed into the shop, and they fitted me perfectly. I took that as a sign that I was meant to walk the Camino, bought the boots, and finally quit my job. I guess you could say that I walked out of my old life and then didn’t stop walking. Just two weeks after quitting my job, I was at the beginning of the Camino.
The Camino was a great experience where I met lots of people and spent all day outside in nature. I walked 560 miles (800KM) across Spain, traversed the Meseta desert, walked through vineyards and cornfields, and crossed two mountain ranges. I think walking the Camino helped me to feel calmer and allowed me time to think about what I really wanted out of life. I began to feel more connected to myself.
After finishing the Camino, I was determined to improve my life and pursue my passions. The walk had taken me five and a half months and helped me prove to myself that I could do anything I put my mind to. I returned back to Glasgow in November 2018 and decided to go for my dreams, like I never had before. This is how I found my calling. I started to do freelance writing and have built up a client base using two freelancing agencies. I even decided to self-publish two e-books containing some short stories, which I published using Amazon’s create space.
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I’ve now found my spot in life and have learned not to fear the unknown or the future. You can’t wait for good things to happen in life but need to take action, follow your dreams and make them happen.
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