Settling Down Under?

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I'm currently in Australia, in the quiet country city of Orange, New South Wales. I'm not being terribly touristy, as I'm spending my days relaxing, reading, and planning little details for an autumn ceremony in Montreal. I did actually go to the tourist information office, so I do plan to be a tourist in the next two weeks before I leave Orange.
But in the meantime, I'm being adult and looking at loans and jobs and houses and all that adult jazz that I've avoided for so long. Am I ready to settle down?

On the topic of travel as a lifestyle, I feel the need to ramble:

There are some people who never travel. Perhaps they are scared, perhaps they always find excuses to not travel, or perhaps it just doesn't interest them.
There are some who go on little trips and vacations. Some proceed to brag to all their friends about how great travel is - despite the fact that they have merely just skimmed the surface of the world of traveling. They may have gone on vacation and trips, but they haven't "traveled". Or perhaps they've had a taste of travel, and so they feel they've completed their checklist and are satisfied with just that.
There are those who live to travel. If money grew on trees, their money would be spent on anything travel-related. For them, it would be fantastic to never have to work, so that they may devote every waking hour to travel.
Within this category there are the extreme travelers. Carmen Sandiego anyone? They are always on the go, always in some exotic far-off land, collecting the stories. Who knows what they do for work...as they always seem to be traveling. Many of us are jealous of them. They have figured out a lifestyle that consists of nothing but travel.
There are the travelers who have somehow manage to balance the "real world" obligations of having a job, with the joys of setting off on great adventures. And for the rare few, somehow their travel is linked to their jobs. National Geographic photographers come to mind in this case. And much jealously comes to mind as well.

But the problem with generalizations is that, well, they are too general.

I often wonder where I fit in. I suppose it's all relative. Compared to most of the population of the little town I grew up in, I would appear to be an extreme traveler. "Where in the world is Mel?" seems to be a very common subject in emails I receive. But having covered only a small percent of the countries in the world, and having met many much more extreme travelers than I, I feel like my adventures are puny and pale in comparison to many, such as on Travelblog.
I have also reached a point in my life where I have discovered something that I want even more than adventure and traveling: Love. Go on, make fun of me for being all sappy. In life, the three things I strive for are - collecting great stories through travel, to be loved and have someone to love, and have a meaningful job.

And herein lies the problem with my above generalizations: I have made drastic assumptions. In life, one has to make priorities. For some people, travel is simply not a priority. For some, travel is something to be done, as if part of a greater checklist. For some, it is their only priority. And for others, they have other priorities but have somehow balanced them with their travel priority.

I struggle and wonder how to achieve my three big goals, and I wonder how to balance these priorities. I feel blessed to have found a great partner, who is equally interested in travel. But how do I go about finding that job, which must both be meaningful and allow me to continue traveling? We have both grown tired of living the poor backpacker's life. We now wish to have some of the "real world" things such as a place to call home. We want walls upon which to hang the artwork we've collected from our travels, to hang the world map detailing our adventures. While we realize we could quite easily continue the backpacker lifestyle for a few more years, we are tired of watching every penny. We want to be able to fully enjoy the places we stop in. We want to be able to drink beers on a terrace on a warm summer evening in Montreal without worrying about how many beers we can afford. We want to lounge on the beach in the south of France or drink umbrella drinks in the Carribean, or go check out the hippy markets in Goa, or hike in the Grand Canyon, or get photos of polar bears in Churchill. But we are no longer willing to live like bums in order to do these things.
We need to now find a balance. In order to do these things we need money. In order to have money we need jobs. And so now I'm on a mission to fulfill the last priority: a meaningful job. Preferably one that will allow me to save for our travel priority.

It means entering the "real world". Even if just for a little while.

Wish me luck!

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