"I had cancer when I was 10. Now I realize, people around me, people my age or people older, everyone is dealing with something that stops them from doing what they want to do," Elona Karafin said.
In an article by Stuff, Karafin was diagnosed with bone cancer when she was a kid. Now, she's 23 years old and working as a financial analyst. She caught a lot of attention when she travelled from New York to different parts of the world with a limited budget, spending less than US$1400 oversees. What's more impressive is that the airfare, hotel and entertainment are included in that amount of money.
She journeyed to Bali, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Barcelona, Paris, Iceland and a lot more. A full-blooded-travel bug, her trips are all documented on her blog, Elona the Explorer. Since she is working on weekdays, she gives in to her itchy feet and goes abroad on weekends.
"You have time. You can make time. Even the busiest people in the world, they have time. That's why I focus so much on weekend trips," she said.
As a cancer survivor, her view about life is as simple as to encourage young people not to waste their youth. She said, "I don't want to waste away my youth and I don't want others to waste away their youth and I don't want them to do it because people think they don't have enough money or enough time."
She travelled a lot and she's not resting, written on her blog is her bucket list. Some of them are: to stay at Burj Al Arab hotel, Dubai; float in Kawasan Falls, Cebu; rent out a private island on AirBnB, stay at the Four Seasons in Bora Bora; take a skiing lesson in Aspen, Colorado; skydive in Dubai and be in two countries at the same time.
She's not just an analyst and a traveller; she also manages a charity called Checkmate Cancer. The organization is on its third year of encouraging people to fund indigent kids who have cancer. With the help of social media marketing and crowd funding they raise money to help the patients in dealing with the hospital bills and operations.
Elona is an inspiration to her co-youth and even the oldies as well, there's more to life and living it. You have to slow down on your journey and make fun, save, travel and save again. Think of what Oscar Wilde said, "Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."
