Interview with travel writer Cher: 40 years old, unmarried, no child, traveling the world, only doing what you really want to do!

In the coffee shop in the secluded alley, Xue Er, who has just returned from a trip abroad, pointed to the small red coordinates on Google Maps, and gushed about the 98-day tour around Europe that was just completed in the first half of 2022.

Because the epidemic situation has been violated for two years to travel, even if Taiwan still has to be quarantined, the travel soul of this "mature girl" has long been impatient.

Cher's Facebook fans shared a series of travel photos, france's Côte d'Azur, Italy's Milan Cathedral, Switzerland's Jungfraujoch and the Alps, these stunning scenic spots, caused a heated discussion among fans, and left messages: "So envious!" "I haven't been out for a long time, I must go next time!" "Thank you Cher for sharing, it's so beautiful!"

Image courtesy of Cher |

In fact, Xue'er has been a highly sensitive and introvert since she was a child, and she always follows the road paved by others during her growth, even if she has doubts in her heart, she does not dare to look for answers, until 2015, because of the sudden suicide of her colleagues, Xue'er, who was greatly impacted, felt the shortness of life and decided to put down her office identity and embark on her own journey.

Over time, she also laughed that she was either on the way to travel or on the way home, and she spent more time away than she did at home. In the five years leading up to the 2020 outbreak, she had traveled alone across seven continents and visited more than sixty countries, making her envious of being able to travel the world in her thirties.

"After you really step out, you realize that it's really not so hard to travel around the world, the hard thing is whether you really want it and make it an important goal in your life." 」 Xue'er's beautiful face was rosy, and a pair of clear eyes seemed to see through everything.

Embrace setbacks and experience unexpected landscapes of life

After becoming a travel writer, people often asked her, "How much does it cost to take such a trip?"

"In fact, travel does not cost a lot of money, once you step out, you only need to solve the current problems, such as: what to eat, where to sleep, just like living a life." 」

"If you focus on 'how much money do you have to get out,' it becomes very difficult because no matter how hard you try to make money, you feel like you don't have enough money." 」

Cher argues that whether it's travel or other things you want to do, if you really want to, you can position them as life tasks that must be completed, "try to complete it with the only resources you have, even if a lot of things happen in the process and experience a lot of setbacks, this experience will always be yours." 」

Image courtesy of Cher |

She then cited the recently completed trip to Europe as an example.

While traveling to Denmark, the laptop she used to work was stolen. "No way, things are stolen in Europe, it's hard to get them back." I can only explain the situation to the partners at hand, and they are also able to empathize with me, and they also want me to concentrate on traveling, don't worry, and wait until I return to Taiwan for work."

The loss of items is not the first time, at the moment in addition to the surprise, Xue Er did not spend too much effort to tangle, thinking that the information will be done again.

Unexpectedly, the same situation is happening again in Switzerland. On the train, she admired the beauty of the way intently until she got off the train and found that her important bag containing her passport, credit card and cash was missing.

This time she was really panicked, in addition to asking for help from the station staff, she also called Starbucks where she was resting before getting on the train to confirm. The clerk said there was indeed a small bag similar to her description, but it was empty and there was nothing.

Hearing the bad news, she can only describe it with her heart like ashes, and silently prepare for the worst and find a way to solve the current problem.

A few days later, she was about to take the train to her next destination, when she happened to meet the previous station staff, who stopped her and told her that they had picked up a small bag on the train and asked her to confirm.

"I almost cried when I saw the bag, it was all inside, it was really lucky, I just didn't dance on the platform with the station staff!" 」 Xue Er said excitedly, "What moves me at the moment is not the beauty of the mountains and rivers, but the happiness of the lost and regained!"

This experience once again confirms what Cher shared in her new book "Determined to live your life as you like it": "What money can solve is not a big problem; Money can't solve it, time can certainly solve it; What neither time nor money can solve is certainly not my problem, and since it is not my problem, there is no need to solve it."

For Cher, every trip is not only a fragment of life, but also a way to experience life.

(Extended reading: 20,000 kilometers of hiking with my Spanish boyfriend: no plane, no hotel, wandering 17 countries together)

Image courtesy of Cher |

Not bound by the past, not worried about the future

Talking about the new book "Determined to live life as you like", Cher shared: "Many modern people live between ideals and life, living a very painful life - they can't want it, they have the ability but they don't dare to ask for it. However, if you don't make up your mind to make something a goal to be accomplished in this life, it's easy to get a lifetime of muddled and walking dead."

She cited travel as an example, many people want to go abroad, but they do not even have the courage to buy a plane ticket, under the slogan of hard work, but subconsciously escape the difficulty of stepping out of the comfort zone.

However, to get to a certain place, you have to go through setbacks along the way,

"When it's painful, the rest is wonderful;' Enjoying the experience 'better than constantly anticipating what's going to happen next, even if it's bad.'"

This open-minded way of thinking stems from years of cultivating solo travel, just as Cher wrote in the book her life yearning after the age of 40 - "not bound by the past, not worried about the future."

Every day of the trip, Cher will do one thing: spread out all her bags, examine her current needs for items, leave what she needs, throw away what she doesn't need, and buy what she lacks at any time. This is why on this trip to Europe, she originally brought 15 kilograms of luggage, and only 8 kilograms were left on the return trip.

She realized that people really don't need much in a lifetime, "A bed, a meal, some change of clothes, a lot of things can't be taken away, isn't life like this?" 」

She pointed to the clothes on her body, which were an exotic long version of short sleeves, the material was both comfortable and cool, "This is bought in Dubai, the plane is too hot, the long sleeves on the body can not be worn, I bought a dress suitable for the local climate, only 70 Taiwan dollars!" 」

Similarly, after passing through the Netherlands and the weather was cold, she went to a local affordable clothing store to buy the warm tops she needed.

Behind the renunciation carried out by Cher, we see the spirit of focusing on living in the moment, and she also encourages everyone to live every day in front of us.

"Now we're going to talk about how much money you need to prepare for retirement?" That's a fake issue."

Ten years ago a house was five million, now it's fifteen million, you don't have to worry too much about the problem in 20 years, that's too long ago.

"What people need is the ability to survive in different environments, if you don't live today well, then how do you believe that you have a way to face the rest of your life?" 」

(Guess what you want to see: the breakup was forced to break up, I learned to make half a million in second-hand auctions, gorgeous turned into a finisher)

Image courtesy | woman fan editor Haoting 

40 years old, no marriage, no birth, only do what you really want to do

As a 40-year-old single female representative, Xue'er has walked through the wandering of her 20s and the self-doubt of her 30s, and she can feel the anxiety in the hearts of the younger generation.

"If you don't succeed right away, people around you may keep asking, 'Have you traveled enough?'" "Is it enough to do something?" It's as if these things you want to do are just appendages of life."

"But if these are my favorites, why can't I keep my life going on for this period?" Why can't I let this liking go on forever?"

In the past, she also lived in the framework of society for women, such as thinking that life is to get married and have children, as if there must be a happy appearance, it can be regarded as a full life, so she even tried to be close to people.

"The question is, is this really what I want?" I don't want to waste the most important thing I want to do now in order to find a partner."

After all these years of trial and self-dialectic, Xue Er gradually found the answer in her heart, "I believe that as long as I really want it, there must be a way to achieve it, but now this is not what I am longing for!" 」

Image courtesy of Cher |

She also observed that there are two kinds of people who usually discuss whether to get married or not: the first is the twenty- and thirty-year-olds, who still feel that they must enter the marriage in their values, and the second is the person who already has a family.

"From mostly single to a minority of singles, in the past I would put the eyes of most people on me, now I only focus on myself, how other people want to discuss, it has nothing to do with me, because marriage is my own business!" 」 」 Cher smiled calmly.

"Now my friends around me are worried about their children, some are arguing about divorce, and some of them are still very envious of me being single!" 」

At the end of the interview, Cher reminded everyone that people will think a lot of ways to find a way out for themselves, for example: when in love, you know that this person is not ok, but you are not willing to break up like this, or work for five or six years, want to leave but can not make up your mind, feel that the titles and salaries accumulated in the past will disappear overnight.

"Especially for people between the ages of 25 and 35, it's a must to work hard, but you don't need to take him seriously, what you need is to know what you're doing and be happiest." 」

"Of course, you may not be able to be happy all the time, or immediately reach the goal in your heart, but it is precisely because you do not have these things that your efforts are more valuable." 」

Just like Cher decided to embark on a journey at the age of 30, and practiced letting herself go again and again during the trip, so as to find out what we really do, as long as we make up our minds and practice with actions, we believe that everyone can live every day of their daily life into what they like.

(Same scene Plus: I like to be alone, can I get married? ）

Image courtesy of Cher |

| Cher quotes |

• I didn't want to freeze eggs, and I didn't need to be introduced by three sisters and six mothers, so I gave me serials, novels, and a few friends who could drink together, and I believed that one person could live well. Spend all your money on yourself, preferably!
• People who know me understand that I am practicing the lifestyle I want, and people who are not familiar with me only think that you are wasting your life and absurd life. Why explain your efforts to someone you don't know well?
• After an age, find a few likes of the circle, the day will be relied upon, who loves to make money will let who to earn, who loves to complain let him complain, focus on their own likes, is the real yearning.
• Life has never lacked tragic and joyful accidents, and what is lacking is that in the face of change, you will still choose to smile and be kind.
• If you want to do it, do it, it doesn't matter if you don't want to do it, you are really old enough to decide anything, don't be afraid of not becoming an ideal adult anymore!