I’ve been noticing a general shift in thinking – its happening across generations and cultures but the heart and bulk of this shift seems to be within my generation. This weird, confusing generation of people who were born between around 1978 to around 1984. We’re a bizarre bunch of people. We are of an age where we can clearly remember life without technology but we were also still young enough to be a part of the technology boom that is now part of our every day life.

I, personally, seem to struggle with my position in life at times; and I feel that other people my age are feeling the same struggle. And this – this is where the shift in thinking is being born. Having not grown up with cell phones, Facebook or easily accessible internet, I can remember “simpler times” – it seems like people acted more “human” and communication/interaction had to be face to face or at least through a more personal means, like a phone call. But at the same time – I love texting instead of a phone call sometimes. I check my Facebook throughout the day just like everyone else except…I kind of hate it. Having been born at the time that we were – I feel like it gives our generation a unique edge versus other generations. We basically straddle the gap of traditional old-school thinking and the digital age. It’s amazing and awful at the same time!

Back to the shift I mentioned – this special generation of ours seems to be thinking more and more outside the box. Since we’ve grown up with such a unique perspective on technology and society, we have a different way of viewing things and the “core” of us is very different but balanced. At least I think so. I know I cherish the days of writing notes in class instead of being able to text – or, having to call your friend’s house to see if they’re home. It seemed so much more personal. I remember my brother and I riding our bikes around town all day without supervision and our parents didn’t know where we were for hours. Now it’s just fear fear fear. Everywhere. It’s crazy to me! The shift in thinking is trying to create a new life/way of thinking that makes sense to us – connectivity in a more personal, traditional way but also sharing it through modern contemporary means.

Since we’ve started our major travel plans we’ve been doing a lot of research of other people who have done the same thing. It’s crazy to see the similarities in our lives. Most people who are deciding to do long-term travel or live abroad generally seem to be in our age range. These people generally seem to have the same feeling of “I gotta get out of the rat race” that we do. And generally, these people love the feeling of experiencing other cultures and CONNECTING. Like for real. Not on the computer. What a concept!

It leads me to believe that our generation is creating something special. We’re creating an insight to a life that people typically don’t find feasible. We grew up being told that if you graduate high school and go to college – you can be successful. Unfortunately, by the time we graduated college, the opportunities our parents had were no longer there. We’ve had to get creative. Starting our own businesses (since we saw so many people lose their jobs in the economy crash), living in smaller, more practical spaces (since we saw so many people lose their homes) and paying off debt (so we don’t repeat the same mistakes as generations before us).

And for us – it’s travel. This is our path to find out what we want from life. This will allow us to go to places where there is still a major connection between people – whether it’s selling your homegrown mangos at the market or watching an ancient skill still being performed the way it was done hundreds of years ago.

And yet! Here I am writing a blog about it – very 2015 of me. Yep, our generation is a strange and mysterious one. But I love being a part of it and I can’t wait to share our perspectives with you along our journey.

Also – here’s a fantastic article about Generation Oregon Trail – enjoy!