Optimism is Key

In preparation to come to Byron Bay, I had many expenses to pay, both planned and unforeseen.  Just to get here, I needed to pay the people who set up the internship with Mojosurf, pay for my Working/Holiday visa, and buy a plane ticket.  Then my goal was to just save, and save, and save.

Instead, I barely saved any money.  I needed to buy a new phone over the summer, which cost me nearly $800.  I also prematurely quit my good-money-making job because of a coworker I didn't get along with.  Luckily, I found a new job.  However, it didn't pay nearly as well.  I struggled to pay bills, let alone save money.  Then, of course, the month before I came here, I had a road trip out to the L.A. airport with my boyfriend, his brother, and two of their friends.  I was nearly broke by the time I got to Byron Bay.

But I still made it here, and I'm still surviving.  If I hadn't already invested so much money into this internship, I probably would've stayed back at home and tried to earn some more money.  I did pay a lot for the trip already, so I wasn't about to turn back.  

Now, I met a lot of people while I've been here, and many of them are short on money.  Nearly all of them have very little money, in fact.  But many of the people that I have met have also been traveling Australia for months and months.  I felt very unprepared.

I did talk to one of my friends who got to the Arts Factory two weeks before me and was in the same predicament.  My friend is like the happiest person I have met so far.  He never really has money to go out, like myself, but he always has fun around 'camp' and figures that something will happen for the better in the long run.

The optimism is powerful here.  You don't have to have a lot of money or tons of nice clothes.  If you can't afford to drink, you need to learn to have fun without alcohol.  The fun and the adventure are right in front of you; it's all about what you make of your situation.  My situation is pretty good at the moment.