One woman's walk to a dream come true

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Good story submitted by member Cynthia Clampitt about her 6-month walkabout in Australia and her permanent walk away from corporate America (edited a bit for space). You go, Cynthia!

“Despite years of success climbing the corporate ladder, I realized one day that this was not where I belonged. I had always wanted to be a writer, but my career was continually taking more of me. Somehow there was never any time to pursue my dream.

I knew if I didn’t leave, the dream would die.

So I planned and saved. And I nurtured my lifelong interest in Australia. A subtle country, someone once said, where “it is possible more easily to discard the inessential and to attempt the infinite.” That was exactly what I wanted.

Then in my mid-thirties, I walked away from my career and all semblance of security. I traveled to Australia, where I circled and crossed the continent, covering nearly 20,000 miles. Some say it changed me. I say it helped me discover who I was and what I could do.

It wasn’t easy beginning a new career once I returned home. There were a few years of beans, rice, and potatoes, but in time, the sacrifice paid off, and work began to get steadier. And at last, I found the time to turn the hundreds of pages of hand-written notes from that trip into a book.

Waltzing Australia is a journal, a record of six months of joy and adventure. It is about change and discovery. And it is about all that made me fall more in love with Australia every day. The book is my way of sharing the story of my adventure—not just the physical adventure of exploring Australia, but also the emotional and psychological adventure of leaving the corporate world and starting my career over. Dreams come at a price, but they can come true.

Today, I am a freelance writer, culinary historian, and world traveler. I have returned to Australia three times. And the spirit of adventure awakened during that first trip has carried me far and wide: from Mongolia to Morocco, Iceland to India, Turkey to Tibet. I have never regretted the decision to pursue my dream. It had a price, but it was a price I was willing to pay.”

Please send us your story of hopes, milestones, dreams, battles or whatever. We are glad to publish them here and will be collecting them for a book of SWWAN.