LAURA DREYER
 Seven years or so ago I found myself with a job in customer relations with one of the UK’s top retailers and a heart yearning for change… the wanderlust eventually got the better of me. I resigned, packed up my apartment and took two years off to travel with a 6-stop round-the-world ticket, with no set plan but a taste for adventure. I began in Thailand. Having delighted in the hustle and humidity of Bangkok, I embarked on a rail journey that would change me forever. The rocking of carriages in motion soothed my heart and I began to write. This journal became a fusion of years past and experiences present and became more colourful as I wound my way down through Thailand, Malaysia and finally to Singapore, an amazing record and a deep and profound experience for me – but probably not one for the Booker prize!
The process however enabled me realise that travel fed my soul. So on I went and Australia became my home for a year. After a wild stint as a line dancer on a cattle farm, I returned to the city (Sydney) to find some ‘real work’. A mixture of temp jobs and scuba diving kept me going until the ski season, when I promptly popped over to New Zealand to take advantage of the beautiful scenery, lovely people and relatively unspoilt slopes. After a while the cold stopped being novel and I moved on to Fiji, certainly a good deal warmer and after exploring the more rural areas I was content to dive and relax on the beach for a few months and top up my tan while contemplating my next move. The bright lights of LA beckoned and a total change of pace was required before I slipped into an island coma possibly never to return.
From LA on back to London, home supposedly, but now I knew I wouldn’t be there
for long. Six months was actually all I lasted before I got on a plane to sunny
Cape Town. I had managed to fall completely in love in the mean time, so the
move to South Africa was a bit more complicated. Not prepared to let my heart
rule my head I stuck to my guns and set up and managed an Art Gallery in Cape
Town. This fusion of creativity and business lead me to start my own company
and fulfil a life-long dream of working for myself. Thankfully the love of my
life decided that he would give life in the southern hemisphere a bash and came
for what ended up being a very long holiday. Feeling settled and content to stay
in one place for a while, last year my partner of 5 years and I decided to wed
and start a family.
This new sense of family as well as growing experience in business especially
marketing (which is what I actually studied!) has lead me to become part of
Just the Planet - a literally awesome site which I hope you will come to know
and love.
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The Editorial Team
*The contributors' countries listed above,
refer to each individual contributor's current country of residence, whereas
the flag next to their name
denotes
their
nationality, the country where they were born and raised!
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