Being a traveller means a lot of things to a lot of people. Being location independent is just as ambiguous. Both are individual to the character who walks the trail of their own desires.

A friend, Dan, coined the term “Foundation Traveller” and described it as a person who loves to travel but loves to live in a place for an extended period of time to comprehend the culture fully.

That would be me. I love travelling but I also love having a home.

I love nothing more than arriving to a new location and figuring it all out. There’s an enormous gratification to be experienced in arriving to a new country being bombarded by a senses overload and then working through it day by day, moment by moment. The challenges of getting yourself set up into the new community, making new friends,  learning the language, adjusting to a new work schedule and learning the ropes of where things are can be too much for many but it is something that the stubborn, non-quitter part of my personality thrives on.

The feeling of accomplishment when months down the track you realise you’re comfortable is unlike any I’ve known by living in Australia. I have been a foundation traveller since I moved out of home at the age of seventeen. Then I had been unable to live in any one place for longer than a year but it was often much less. Before leaving late June 2007 I had moved no less than seventeen times in seven years. I have never liked stagnancy and when Australia stopped being challenging I knew there was a big, exciting, scary world to get my jollies over.

When I came across the term “Location Independence” in June of last year I literally did a jiggy dance. You know the kind, up out of your chair, bum wobbling, hands flailing, hips grooving, super-excited movement that gets you pumped. I loved that I had found an industry that I fit in. Everyone has their own definition of what location independence is, mine is the ability to live anywhere in the world independent of your source of income.

To most, and my future goals, this means online.

But I think we can safely broaden it to any line of work that gives you the ability to work anywhere: teaching, nursing, trades, hospitality, consultancy, and the like all fit into this category. The important thing is transience.

As a foundation traveller how I interact with a community and what I learn from it is the ultimate end goal. My vision of being an Online English Educator is one who can work online simply so I can volunteer some of my time in whatever country I’m in.

Work is work anywhere but living is where you are right now.