Traveling is cool right...? But is that all?
Do you know the feeling of looking forward to something, but when it comes closer and closer you start doubting it, or you are doubting yourself over and over again? That happened to me when my travel plans came closer and closer.
I am very aware of my unique situation that I even have the opportunity to save money, go to travel with my European passport and I am very grateful for that. Maybe because I am so aware of that it did not really felt right to just go without any goal or purpose. It did not feel right for me to just go to all the tourist attractions and not have attention to other beautiful, interesting, local and unique things that are out there. To understand why I felt like this we have to go a few steps back...
A few steps back (school)
I have always been interested in sustainability, but never knew how to translate that to school or work. During my bachelor's I was a bit lost, I did a marketing study that was really fun, but it did not feel right to set up marketing campaigns to sell products that people don't need and that only push the consumer market + all the sustainability (social & ecological) consequences that come with that. That did not feel right, but what then? I told this to a teacher and he said, search Circular Economy, this changed my whole mindset and motivation. Now I have a clear goal; I want to learn more about that! For those who do not know what Circular Economy is, please watch This video.
I searched a master's program that would focus on this topic and I found a study in Sweden called: Leadership For Sustainability, and this was the perfect match. Here it was possible to focus only on sustainable development, and my main focus was implementing sustainability and Circular Economy into (commercial) organizations. During this study I was surrounded with 50+ International people from all over the world, whole of Europe, but also Filipino, the US, Mexico, Syria, Cambodia, Brazil etc etc. To hear stories and ask a lot of questions about their lives back home and why they came to Sweden to study sustainability was for me the best thing ever.
No money left... work!
After one year in Sweden and in total 8 years of studying I had a study debt and no money left. I had to go and work and this was a weird switch. Not only do I feel that, a lot of people of my age share this feeling. You go from a lot of flexibility to very little. Luckily I had the opportunity to do a traineeship in energy transition, here I worked at a start-up in sustainable heat batteries that uses salt & water to heat buildings. I did market research for this company, this was not what I studied for, but for the first job it was very interesting to work at an innovative and sustainable start-up.
After one year I had the opportunity to get a position that I wanted and studied for at a High-tech company that has +-600 employees. Here I was busy implementing sustainability pratices into every department of the organization, both social and environmental. There was no sustainability team yet, we even had to think about a name and strategy for the sustainability team. To be this early in the process and to work at an International High-Tech company and be busy with sustainable development was an unique opportunity and I learned so much. Here I contributed something and had impact in a fast growing international company, which gave me a good feeling.
Now travel and leave everything I worked for?
After two years of hard working and long days, my travel plans came closer and closer. And as this came closer my excitement for it dropped. I have a good and important job, do I leave it to have pictures on a beach, plus have bad impact on the world by flying etc... it did not feel right.
Yes, my excitement is back!
When I started to think about this a lot I asked myself, what things do you like the most and what is important for you? I love nothing more than connecting with others and meeting strangers. Preferably people from abroad and hear their stories and find out what drives them. During my masters in Sweden I met a lot of these people, people that where passionate, adventurous, thought sustainability was important, and these people where all international. Also I considered my interest and energy towards sustainability, I did not wanted to let go of that. I started thinking on how can I combine the feeling I had during my study in Sweden plus my interested in sustainability and connect it with my travel plans?
At that moment I thought, there must be waaayy more people all over the world that are busy implementing sustainability in any kind of form (social or environmental), I want to meet them and find out their purpose. Here the idea of this website was born!
Is this a way to explain and tell myself, oke now it is alright to travel and you do not have to feel guilty anymore? Yeh maybe, but I also do this only for myself, to go beyond the tourist attractions and meet real people with impactful initiatives and interesting stories. to stay in the world of sustainability and to learn and grow and develop my skills and understanding towards sustainable development. My excitement and energy is now definitely back and that is most important. I feel I have a purpose during my travel period. My opinion is that everyone needs a purpose, and I want to meet Purpose Drivers from all over the world that have a social or environmental impact, this can be a very small or big initiative, organization, project, NGO or company. I want to find out what drives these people, learn from them and spread the message and connect.
Do you know someone who is a Purpose Driver and who might be interested in sharing their story please let me know!
Thank you for reading my story on why I started this website. If you feel inspired and also would like to travel sustainable please checkout the blog post about sustainable travel tips.
A long story in a few sentences... Let's try:
I noticed that for me traveling is more than beach pictures and meeting other tourists. I want to meet what I call Purpose Drivers! People that are busy making the world a better place, this can be social or environmental, big or small it does not matter. I am happy and grateful that I have the chance to do this and I am exited to learn and connect with local Purpose Drivers.
