“My name is Audrey Hamelin, I’m 26 years old and I’m a French Canadian. First of all, I am not a professional photographer but I’ve always loved taking pictures and edit them. I guess a lot of you will relate to my story. After university, I had a really nice grown-up job, I was making good money and I felt like I was following the “normal” way to live (study-career-settle). Everyday was the same routine until one day, I remember saying in the parking lot at my job “I’m not happy’’.
I had creative dreams that one day I threw away because I wasn’t seeing any future possible in it. After a trip with my high school to France, I wanted to be a flight attendant and I knew I wanted to travel all around the world. A few years after that, I did a humanitarian trip to Guatemala. I think it was THE trip. People like me always have THE trip, the one that changed everything. It wasn’t anymore that I wanted to explore the world, it was rather like I needed to explore. It’s hard to explain that feeling. It’s like, you realize that the world is so huge and it will be a waste of your life to stay at the same place. You need to see everything, to live new experiences and you love that feeling when you immerse yourself in a new culture.
By the end of high school, even though I had these travel desires, I wanted to be a business woman. I thought that if I was making a lot of money, I would be able to travel everywhere. Cause yeah, I thought you needed to be rich to travel… So, I studied the supply chain management. I know it sounds scary and boring. I later landed in a Chandler Bing kind of job; like all your friends know you have a real important job but no one knows exactly what you’re doing. And on one day in the parking lot I was just questioning myself.
My grandpa died around this time. He was one of the most important people in my life. You know that feeling when you’re looking around you, seeing your friends and colleagues at work and they act like if nothing had changed. But for you, your whole world stopped. It’s awful. In my case, it was also life changing. Life is too short, I finally realized it.
When I was explaining my story to some strangers they were like “OMG it’s so cool, it’s like a never ending vacation”. Eh no. There is a big difference between a trip in an all-inclusive hotel in Mexico and what people like me are doing. There is a difference between a vacation and a trip. If you come back home and you feel rested, you probably didn’t really travel. Plus, it is not true that you can travel for one year and never work or volunteer. Work in exchange of free accommodation and food is so awesome. Driving 10 hours everyday is less awesome. I drove 40 hours across the USA and I visited a lot of national parks in Nevada, Utah, Arizona and California with one of my oldest friends. Then I traveled for a few weeks alone on the west coast. Traveling alone, I mean staying alone all the time, has his pros and cons. It can be long and you wish you had someone with you to share what you are living but at the same time it feels so good to be alone and you kind of rediscover yourself. I’ve spent the summer in British Columbia working in a hostel.
When I am in front of a breathtaking scenery, I always take a few minutes to observe it. I live the moment. Then I take a shot. Sunrises and sunsets became my new best friends. I drove more than 30 000 km in less than 7 months to catch the best landscapes. I lived in my car, had exhausting days of driving and hiking. If I need to wake up at 3AM and drive 3 hours to hike 30 km to get a shot, I’ll do it. If it wasn’t for photography, I’ll never wake up that early or stay up all night to try to catch the milky way!
When you are back at home, everything is exactly the same. You are different. Everybody asks you how it was and you have to answer 10 times the same questions. But even if you want to say how you felt, what you saw, there are not enough words to express it. Only the one you shared theses moments with will know. So, you say “Yes it was really nice and beautiful”, and deep down inside you are screaming, not words but photos that means 1000 words for you.
When I share a photo, I share a memory. And I hope that at least one person who looks at it will say “Whoa I wanna go there”. It is true when they say that you are one decision away to live a completely different life.
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