It's odd to admit, but I don't need to go on a trip this summer. I'm quite content living at my parents for now. 

I'm not into mooching off my parents, but this is a just season in the Life of a Modern Day Twenty-something.  (BTW, I fully intend on moving out soon and eventually travelling the entire world round.  I figured it's high time for me to sit 'er down and crank out something useful) 

Still, I'm in the same house everyday and it can be depressing.

I remember feeling so alive during my past trips, partly because I always knew that the experience was going to end.  When my legs accumulated 117 mosquito bites in Tanzania, I *only* had two weeks left to the trip.   When my shoulders were sunburnt in Bali (and I didn't bring any t-shirts!!), I *only* had 10 days left. 

I tried to be grateful that I got to travel anyway. 

Life is never so bad.  

Yea, I'm not cruising across the African desert plains this summer but I'm alive and kicking (and will be kicking until my next season of travel arrives). 

In the meantime, this is how I stay inspired. If you've ever felt like you're dying to go on a trip, you'll love this vlog: 

I'm conflicted. My problem is that I'm trying to create my own dream career and live my passionate life while telling you how to live yours.  

So I'm making a declaration today that I will not try to tell you how to live your life.  I'll just tell you what's working for me.  (Honestly, this is what I've been doing all along, but I feel better making it clear to you :) I only ever share things that have personally worked for me.)

Here goes: I have seriously down days.  At various points in my life I thought I must have bipolar disorder, PMDD (aka. severe PMS), SAD ( aka. severe winter blues) or depression.

In my efforts to alleviate my moodiness, I went on birth control pills, cleaned up my diet, became vegetarian and even escaped last winter by jetting off to Singapore. Some things worked, but nothing for very long. 

Now I just face it, the ups and downs are part of the human condition. (Not to mention, starting a business makes highs higher and the lows lower.)  The point of life though is to ride the waves, not to numb it all out. 

There was a point when I thought I would NEVER work in international development again. 

After two summer internships in East Africa, I was fed up with the dirt, corruption and lack of proper infrastructure.  I'm not cut out for this, I decided.  

These "dark spots" on my resume are why I've rewritten the about page on my websites hundreds of time. 

What's your dream career?  Not the one you absorbed from professors, guidance counsellors, colleagues or parents. 

What's yours? 

I can't be "successful" until I find a world-class mentor.  She (or he) will be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and she'll catapult me to the stratosphere with her influential contacts and sage advice.

 Then, I can't fail.  I just need a mentor.

For years, this is what I thought.

Everything takes time.  Lots of time. More than I know how to
fathom at my age.

I'm 23.  When I read about the careers of people who are doing what
I would love to do one day, I can feel the whole ship sinking.

AAAH, there's so much to do. How am I supposed to do all of that?!
I don't know how to do 99% of the things they talk about and the 1%
things that I can do, I suck at.  

What if I don't have ANY
time for my passion?

We end up in situations in life, whether by our choice or not, that
we are plain-jane not passionate about. Like:

a) A tough / boring course in university that doesn't spark your
interest, but you know the content will be beneficial to learn

b)  A job in a field that doesn't fire up your passions, but
renders a healthy cash flow and gets your feet wet in the
professional world

Have you ever struggled over how to spend your money most "wisely"?No matter how much you have, it never seems to be enough?

We rarely talk about the moolah - unless its to say that we don't
have enough of it - and yet it's not how much you have, but how you
think about it that matters.

Contrary to extremely popular belief, you don't need to worry about
money.

 You should be smart about your finances, but mulling over your
supposed lack of money is going to keep you from doing what you
were meant to do on this planet.

I want you to know that you can live so passionately that you
bounce out of bed at 5am excited to face the day.  It's not always
easy, pretty or uncaffeinated, but it's worth it. With your smarts,
our savvy strategy and good TPP company, you can be infinitely
wealthy, happy and fulfilled.

I'm not just saying it.  I've seen it happen again and again, and
it'll happen for us too.

My Insights: I’m tired of hear­ing about how Mil­len­ni­als/Gen Y, aka. WE, are lazy, nar­cis­sis­tic and apathetic.

So far, I’ve trav­elled to and worked in 17 coun­tries. I maxed out every oppor­tu­nity dur­ing my uni­ver­sity years to travel by work­ing, vol­un­teer­ing, intern­ing, research­ing, teach­ing and study­ing abroad.   I can say from first-hand expe­ri­ence that young peo­ple from North Amer­ica to Europe to Africa are Dig­i­tal Natives and Global Cit­i­zens who are work­ing to cre­ate a bet­ter world.

I often have this nag­ging feel­ing that I’m wast­ing my time in school.  I read sto­ries about young entre­pre­neurs who started and grew their own busi­nesses while in uni­ver­sity, or even high­school and I feel like I am falling behind with each pass­ing day.

The prob­lem with try­ing to carve my own path is that my work­load never ends.  Every­thing that I dis­cover becomes one more task I could do grow my busi­ness or improve my life.  I’ve learned that I can’t just work, work, work or I’ll burn ou

Home is where the heart is.  And let’s be hon­est, my heart is not on an air­plane, in my pass­port or in the trop­i­cal des­ti­na­tion where I just landed.

My first few days in Sin­ga­pore were a roller coast, stuck on the down­ward slope. I knew deep down that it would get bet­ter and but for a while I kept think­ing, what am I doing here?!

You are the average of the five peo­ple you asso­ciate with most.

For good or for bad, for bet­ter or for worse, the peo­ple around you influ­ence who you are today and who you will become more like.  If you dream of being an entre­pre­neur, but you sur­round your­self with peo­ple who play video games all day, good luck.