The 3 biggest influences that made me want to travel the world

As I've broken the news of my impending adventures, I've told some people that its something I've always wanted to do. A couple of people were surprised to hear this as they hadn't heard me mention it before which didn't surprise myself as I haven't revealed it to many before, but I'll let you in on what's influenced this secret, burning desire over the years.

I took some time recently to have a real think about what's been behind this desire to get out and see the world and there's a few things:

One is the fact that growing up, I didn't holiday much so when I did for myself at 20 (during a legendary 2 week lads holiday in Ibiza) it ignited my passion to see more beyond the grey skies of Britain.

But when I thought about it there's been an influence all throughout my life that fueled the desire more than I realised; someone who's set the example by seeing the world. He's an adventurer who can't sit still for a nano-second and someone who's been everywhere, in fact you'd struggle to think of somewhere on any wannabe travelers wishlist that he hasn't been to: be it rolling hills, snowy peaks, deserts, bustling cities, beautiful beaches, tropical jungles and even... a space station?

Sounds a bit odd doesn't it? But the truth is my biggest influence is fictitious, he's not human, he's not even 4 foot tall and..... he's blue.

Anyone who knows me won't be surprised to know that since I was a kid I've actually had a borderline obsession with Sonic the Hedgehog, but as a travelers role model he's actually spot on as he never sits still for a moment, he gets his fair share of excercise and he lives for adventure.

Him aside there's plenty of other things that I realise have influenced me, namely some of my favourite films that tend to center around an exotic location and a hero. James Bond taught me that life is about jetting off to adventures in search of a woman, fine food, fine booze and all of the other finer things in life (sure he often had a mission, but that's not what I paid attention to!), whilst the great Dr Henry Jones Jr (but don't call him Junior) also lead they way for me by instigating an interest in foreign culture and history.

No, these aren't perhaps the most spiritual of guides that could set me on my path, but they were my childhood heroes (who am I kidding, they still are) and they're as good a set of role models as any.

So what are we all waiting for? Pack your running shoes, your Walter PPK and your whip and let's go on an adventure!

Let me introduce myself

Husband, runner, traveller, teacher, football nut - I'm all these things, but I'm also someone who usually likes to figure things out for myself.

I'm currently 27 years old, I've been married 7 months and in just 9 weeks I'm about to embark on the biggest adventure of my life: in March my wife and I are both jetting off to Vietnam to teach English as a foreign language.

In the run-up to our wedding we both took stock of our lives and looked beyond the wedding. We both currently work in marketing and although we're only in our mid twenties, we both felt the need to undergo a change. Neither of us ever had the opportunity to go on a gap year and when we realised that we weren't getting what we wanted out of our careers we decided that as newlyweds we'd never have a better time in our lives to make a fresh start and do what we really want to do.

We thought about just travelling but we soon realised that wouldn't be enough, we wanted to enjoy our jobs, we wanted to earn money and we wanted to extend our travels all in one go - and as we found out more about TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), we learned that there was a way to live out all of our dreams.

I want to see the world, I want to learn new things, I want to learn about myself, I want to really know what I should do with the rest of my life and I want to experience things I could never experience at home. Above all else, I want to one day be a person that I'd look up to myself (especially as I one day want kids and I am determined that they have an example in awesomeness father them).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not someone who's riddled with problems that I need to solve and I certainly don't hate the person I am now, I just know I can be more. In fact, if I was to come back sporting the Hansel from Zoolander look and persona then that wouldn't be a bad thing.

So what things do I need to figure out? Well there's a lot to get your head around in life and a big world out there to see, so read on and you'll see as I try to get my head round things as I head out on an epic journey to see the world alongside my wife.

Who knows? Maybe we'll all learn something along the way....