Culture

Charting a dream map of the world

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-19 08:00

Chu's spirituality is one of the strongest driving forces in his hip hop life.

Editor's note: Yu Ying, 28, was in 2009 one of the runners-up for the competition to land the "Best Job in the World". Since then, she has completed a tour of Asia and Oceania, and will soon continue her 10-month global travel plan in the Americas and Europe.

My journey started on Jan 26, when I landed in Hong Kong. After that I went to Taiwan and Japan, then flew south to Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. The first part of my travels ended on March 26.

Now I am in Beijing preparing for the second part when I will visit the United States and Mexico from May 20. At present, I am spending most of my time seeking sponsorship, while also earning some money as a public relations officer.

The cultural and natural diversity of different places is the attraction of travel, but the purpose of my journey is to do research about dreams. I want to get a picture of the values and dreams of young people around the world, and I want to encourage more people of my age to strive for their dreams. The idea of the dream map is rooted in a question that haunts me: Why was I unhappy?

Many of my friends were also struggling to find some happiness. We were not content with life, even if we had jobs with a decent salary.

We were "hijacked" by parents' expectations and the demands of modern life. We had lost sight of our dreams and did not have the courage to create new ones.

A little more than a year ago, I beat 35,000 other entrants to be in the final 50 in the 2009 world campaign for the "Best Job in the World" - as caretaker of islands on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef.

As soon as I arrived on the Great Barrier Reef, I was shocked. How fabulous the world is. An idea suddenly occurred to me: I must carry out my dream of traveling around the world and meeting other dreamers.

During the first trip, I met many great dreamers who moved me a lot, and I shared these stories on my blog and micro blog.

Japanese traveler Yusuke Ishida is not as famous as other people I intend to meet, but he is the one I wanted to meet most.

This guy had the courage to travel around the world for seven years on his bicycle. I first got to know him when I was preparing for my first journey in 2010 and I found his book, Go or Die. I wondered about the title until I learned that he faced many death threats in those seven years: from malaria in Africa to robbery in Peru with guns pointed at his belly.

I wanted to ask him one question, the same one I wanted to ask everyone: What did dreams mean to him?

He told me when he faced death, he learned how powerful a person is. He said the most important lesson he learnt from travel was that our life is in our own hands as long as we focus on our dream.

Striving for a dream can be time-consuming. I waited a year to get my travel dream under way. It was tough. Getting sponsorship was the hardest thing. I wrote blogs to broaden my network, trying to talk face to face with every potential sponsor.

I became desperate and asked myself why I was doing this. The answer was positive and clear, so I stuck to my plan and at the last moment received generous sponsorship from two companies.

My parents are starting to understand me, although my uncle still disagrees. I hope I can stick to my dream.

(China Daily 05/19/2011)