«» Travel Notes 035: Back at it!
The Alchemist, life updates, and my first newsletter of the year 🤯
HELLO. I’m Atom, and you’ve received my Travel Notes:
"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.
"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."
Exactly one year ago, I read these words somewhere over the Pacific, tucked into a well-worn copy of The Alchemist as my flight traced its path from Manila to Melbourne. I arrived at Tullamarine Airport at 12:05 AM on November 8, 2023.
After exploring Melbourne for a week, I moved to Sydney where I've since settled down. The path wasn't immediately clear. In my last newsletter from early December, I wrote "Sydney has been great, if not for the anxiety around sending endless job applications into the void that is HR teams on holiday." Those words captured my struggle.
To make it through the holidays, I printed my resume and walked around my suburb, hoping to find casual work. Most shops had finished their holiday hiring so I was lucky to walk into Kitchen Queen, a traditional kitchen appliances shop with no online presence.
From December to February, I worked there three days a week, 10:30 to 5:00. What I earned was just enough to cover rent and food, so the rest of my time was focused on applying for jobs, attending data analytic meetups, and learning how to code. In the end, I sent 212 applications during this time, landing exactly two interviews, and one job offer: a position as a data analyst for the Economics team at Ray White.
(Fun fact: I got my interview because they noticed "writing" listed among my interests. You could say this newsletter helped me land my current job.)
Seven months later, I've found myself on unexpected adventures: business trips to Melbourne and the Gold Coast, speaking tours across New Zealand, and even a TV appearance! In many ways, reading the quote from The Alchemist now feels less like literary wisdom and more like a prophecy in fulfillment.
Meanwhile, this newsletter has mostly sat silent.
Initially, I used the demands of adjusting to life in Australia as my excuse. But the truth is my life no longer fits the newsletter's original purpose as a travel blog. Or perhaps it's simpler still: I didn't write because I couldn't tell myself where my life was heading. The uncertainty of it all – finding work, making a home, deciding how long to stay – felt too vast to capture in words.
Ironically, even as I settled into Australian life – finding a home with housemates-turned-friends, securing a stable job, and even completing my first marathon – the words still wouldn't come.
I've realized why: writing never came from a place of clarity; writing was my path to clarity. In earlier newsletters, I pressured myself to write as a travel expert, but it always felt forced. The truth is I'm figuring things out as I go. Writing, I've discovered, is a tool that’s served me more for self-discovery than for explicit instruction of others.
If this newsletter is to remain authentic, it needs to evolve beyond its original scope. It can't just be about travel because I'm not always traveling, and I've learned that constant travel, contrary to what I once believed, is not what I aspire to have. I still love to travel, but it's no longer my whole story.
My life has expanded in unexpected directions. The past year taught me lessons I'm eager to share – stories that don't fit neatly into a travel newsletter. While I'm not entirely sure what this newsletter is becoming, I know I need to keep writing. Any premature attempt to define its boundaries would only create obstacles, and I want to make writing as natural as possible.
Perhaps someday I'll find a specific focus worthy of a weekly release, but for now, I'm embracing a monthly format that gives me space to reflect on life's various dimensions. As part of this shift in perspective is the decision to rename this newsletter from ‘Atomic Travels’ to simply ‘Atom’s Newsletter.’
~ Atom