Hello,
My name is Ali Mohammed, a 22-year-old from Iraq. Ever since I was a child, my dream has always been to travel and discover strange creatures — just a kid’s imagination, of course — but the real dream was always to travel. That imagination has stayed with me until this day, though now it’s in a more realistic form. 😅
Whenever I watched a movie, I never focused much on the fantasy story or the action scenes. I was always drawn to the background — the nature or the city where the story takes place. For example, I watched the movie Avatar about seven times, and honestly, I can barely remember the characters’ names because the beauty of the world and its nature always captured my mind. Whenever I watched an action movie set in a specific city, I’d get excited about the idea of visiting that place and exploring its people and culture.
As I grew older and entered my teenage years, I began to understand life a bit more — at least on the surface — but that dream never left me. It changed from wanting to discover new creatures to wanting to travel, learn, and discover myself.
However, the conditions in my country — the wars and the hardships — killed many dreams. Life was tough, especially for a 15-year-old. I had to quit studying for a while to help my family. I worked in a supermarket, in a chips factory, and in warehouses moving goods from one place to another. After graduating from high school, I continued working and didn’t go to university.
When I turned 21, one day a friend said to me, “Happy birthday!” I asked, “For what?” and he said, “You just turned 21.” I didn’t think much of it at first, but later, while riding my motorcycle home, I started thinking: It’s been three years since I finished high school. My goal was to work and travel, but I haven’t even left my city yet.
I hadn’t saved even $2,000. All I owned was an iPhone 14, a motorcycle, and about 1,750,000 Iraqi dinars — roughly $1,200 USD.
I felt sad that night and couldn’t sleep. A few months later, around September, I came across a new term that caught my attention: “Digital Nomad.”
It means you can work and travel anywhere in the world! 🌍
You don’t have to work in your country, save up, travel, and then come back — no! You can work while traveling — go to Indonesia, then Vietnam, then another country, and keep going.
Since the start of this year, I haven’t taken a real step toward that dream because I feel lost — there’s so much information and so many fields to choose from that I don’t know where to start.
So what I’m asking for isn’t sympathy or pity — I just want help and honest advice that could guide me toward making my dream come true and living the life I truly want.
