The Adventure Begins: How I Got From the Trading Floor to the Lido Deck

"I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate."
-Vincent van Gogh

Hi everybody! Welcome to my blog!

For some of you, this initial post comes (hopefully) highly anticipated and (unfortunately) long awaited! For others, you may be interested in travel, curious about the ramblings of a soul-searcher, or otherwise randomly stumbling on this site for the first time. No matter what, I hope this blog not only informs you, but also speaks to you in some way… Whether that be inspiration or annoyance, only time will tell! 

Today marks the beginning of a great adventure around the world on a Semesterat Sea. But the real journey started one year ago when I got my first inkling that my job as a bond salesman might not be where I wanted to spend the next 30 years of my life. The stages of realization and self-awareness (some more painful than others) all began with a few simple ideas:

1.       It’s ok to not like what you do.

2.       It’s ok to want to do something different.

3.       It’s ok to leave and find that thing.

(I love lists, so you’ll find them popping up pretty often.)

A lot of us convince ourselves that we like what we do, because think we should like it. We lose sight of what we want to do (or never look for it at all) because we spend all our time doing what others say is right. We shy away from the chance to go find what we love for a myriad of reasons but mostly because it’s a scary risk. It would be easy to say that once I admitted those things to myself, everything else just fell into place.

Well, it didn’t.

Those ideas started the train of thought that continued to push me forward, but would often times leave me oscillating between the extremes of having it all figured out and feeling completely hopeless. After an incredibly long (and did I mention somewhat painful) year of soul-searching, mentor-seeking, passion-finding, many other hyphenated ‘ings’, and sometimes just doing noth-ing, I still really hadn’t figured it out. I finally decided (as with most of my better decisions) to let my gut tell me what to do.

Now, there are a few things you should know about me so that you can hopefully understand my tummy’s guiding forces and how they led so perfectly to my next adventure- a Semester at Sea.

I love people.

When I was in high school, I was asked on a scholarship questionnaire to describe my ‘passion.’ By then I knew that sports and academics, although enjoyable, weren’t it. I started to think about the things I loved most in life and realized they all revolved around other people.

Friends and family were only the beginning. I wanted to get to know everyone, figure out their desires, learn what made them get up in the morning (alarm clock is still the best answer I’ve heard), and explore what we all had in common—our innately social nature and our need for each other.

For that reason, I knew that while my searching was personal and internal, it would have to involve other people. Semester at Sea will have over 650 students and several hundred faculty and staff from all over the world, each with varied experiences and interests, each eager to learn and see the world. Like freshman year or your first day at work, we get to be new again.

My heart is set on traveling the world.

I think the travel bug first bit me when I decided to live and study in Rome for a summer in college. From that short 5 weeks of cobblestone streets, fresh air markets, and hazelnut gelato, I was hooked. I have since revisited Italy and traveled to several other European countries trying to expand my global understanding as much as possible.

This was probably my tummy’s biggest motivator. Every job opening I researched felt like delaying an inevitability of exploring the world someday. The chance to travel to Asia and Africa in such a structured way really drew me to the itinerary of this semester’s voyage. 12 countries, 16 cities, 106 days... not too shabby.

I’m in fear-facing mode.

I have a friend who likes to jump off buildings and another who climbs mountains. I know people who have moved to foreign countries sight unseen. I have several friends who put their lives in danger daily. All of these people face their fears instead of letting them get in the way of their passions.

I’ll be honest here, guys. this trip scares the crap out of me.

I was terrified of leaving my job and remain terrified of never finding one again. I’m secretly worried that I’m going to wake up somewhere in the Pacific Ocean during the ten days at sea between Hawaii and Japan freaking out and wanting to be airlifted back to the US. But deep down I get most nervous that maybe this trip won’t be the answer and my tummy was wrong. But I got so unhappy, that I just decided to go forward regardless.

Feel the fear and do it anyway!

I hope to do some social good.

Working on a trading floor, although lucrative, was not all that inspiring for me. Despite being well-compensated, working with intelligent people, and getting to progress quickly, I found myself lacking desire for my work. I had spent two years in finance and wanted to translate that experience into something that motivated me more and made me feel like I was making the world a little bit better.

Enter the Unreasonable Institute.

This semester, our ship will also play host to 11 tech entrepreneurs who will be working closely with students to address some of the major social problems of today ranging from clean water initiatives to local commerce solutions. I’ll also be taking a course in global sustainable entrepreneurship in the hopes that I can learn as much as I can about the ways we can address all of our societies’ needs.

And all of this will hopefully get me to the most important part...

I want to create something that helps people.

At Yale, I majored in psychology, but not to practice or counsel. I was never really drawn abnormal psychology or evolutionary theory. And the great majority of researching and statistical work was definitely not for me.

I wanted to inspire.

Say what you will about the positive psychology movement… I’ve heard everything from crunchy to downright fake. But there is something to be said, something undeniable, about the strength we have to overcome hardship, kill with kindness, and find our happy places. As one of my greatest mentors says, "we co-create reality," and we have the power to change it.

So  now that I’ve finally resigned from the bank and joined the legions of American fun-employed youth, I can see why so many of us feel lost and confused. The portion of our identities that we derive from whatever we do for work is lost. And for some people, that’s a huge portion- a king-size, if you will.

When people ask me ‘What do you do?’ or ‘Where do you live?’ I no longer have easy, crutch-like answers to use as identity markers. I’m no longer a bond salesman living in Connecticut. That Tracy is gone.

But by letting go of that identity, I gained the time and opportunity to find the real one. And my real hope is that my sometimes insightful, generally funny, and eternally honest postings on this blog might get people thinking about who they really are too.

And if not, at least you guys will get some cool pictures out of the deal.

We officially set sail on Wednesday January 9^th, but until then I’ll be traveling through California visiting friends and family. 

Tonight I had dinner at Don Pistos is San Francisco, CA with some wonderful college friends. Gelato at Naia sealed the deal on an amazing first day of travel.

So send me emails, comment on the blog, and let me know what you want to hear about! Coming soon will be travel itineraries, frequently asked questions, and hopefully more pictures!

Question of the day:

What is your passion and how are you living it?