Tasting - TheBrightside in Queensland,Australia

eddy kenzo download

Tasting the Brightside in Queensland, Australia

Now I'm at the point in my life where I find slow travel more rewarding and enjoyable than bouncing around from place to place. I like to dig deeper and get to know a place so that it almost becomes a part of me. I suppose you could say I like falling in love with places, in the least cheesy way possible. This means I often go back to places I've been before, to explore more of the region or just stay put and make friends and get to know how it ticks a little better. But more than anything I've come to love experiential travel, where I get my hands dirty, I learn something new and I walk away knowing that I've accomplished something or conquered a fear. That's my favorite kind of travel.

Along with this evolution of my travel style, I've grown quite a bit personally. Travel changes you, whether you want it to not, isn't that one reason why we are drawn to it? Travel has made me a more positive person. A bold statement, I know. I don't mean to say I was negative before I was a traveler, but let's just say travel can help put things into rather harsh perspective, not to mention challenge you and rip you out of your comfort zone. I've found that if you can't be positive on the road when facing all of this, things just go to hell. Fast.

Travel has been a lifelong lesson of looking on the brightside, seeing the glass to be half full and always trying to put a positive spin or twist when things start to turn ugly. For me, and I suspect for many of you, being positive and thinking on the brightside is a key element to personal happiness. The way I see it, it's all about attitude - we need to be able to put things into perspective and laugh. How are you ever going to be happy if you are whining and negative all the time? Especially traveling? Trust me, I'm sure you've met some of those people on the road, and my god do they leave a startling impression. That's another reason I enjoy solo travel, I don't have to be around negative people - I can chose. And I chose to live on the sunny side of life and be around people who shine.

A while back Lipton Ice Tea asked me about how I live on the brightside. Fumbling over Skype as I usually do (no one has ever accused me of being eloquent on the phone) I found myself struggling with putting the words together. As it often happens to us, the hardest topics to discuss are usually the ones that are the most important or meaningful, right? I've made it a point in my life to keep my balance in the positive, and I owe it almost entirely to travel and storytelling. Following your dreams and doing what you love every single day is the best way to stay positive but it's not always easy. To keep a passion alive for something like travel and writing, especially when it becomes your job is hard work. You have to stay on the brightside. Little did they know what can of worms they were opening up when they asked me that.