'No, you cannot do it! It's irrational! Absolutely crazy!What will people say?!'
That's my mum screaming at me from the other side of Europe. I've just told her that I'm planning to go away for 3 months next year and travel through South East Asia.
We finish the conversation and I hang up, thinking that maybe she's right, maybe I am crazy. Isn't it time for morgage and kids and all other grown-up stuff?
You see, most Polish women are obidient wives who clean, cook and never ever travel without their husbands. They think it is wrong to leave men behind and go away for their own pleasure. Some, like my mum, are convinced that the distance can spoil their relationship.
And here I am, ruining the order of this world and being a disgrace to my family.
My whole life I've wanted to travel, but I thought it impossible. There was always something: no money, school, busy job...Now I think that maybe I was scared and these were just excuses or I wasn't determined enough.
Last month I went for my first ever backpacking trip to Thailand. In my whole 30 year old life I'd never felt so free and full of life like then. I thought I could do anything. It was like an awakening.
Now I want more. The planned trip is next year and I feel like I want to pack my bag today and set off. My job seems too boring, my clothes too heavy and thick, my stomach too bloated, and my daily commute too uneventful.
As to my husband: well, he doesn't have a choice. I either go now and come back as a happy, fulfilled wife, or stay and become another miserable Londoner.
