From the shores of Lough Neagh to the Western Cape in South Africa, one Co Tyrone man has been keen to live life to the full on his global adventures.
Having first left his native Brocagh in 2013 to land in Vietnam to teach English, writer Sean Campbell now finds himself in the land of the Springboks.
He first departed for the practical reason of a harsh economic climate where jobs at home were hard to come by, but soon found a thirst for new adventures.
“I left in May 2013 and headed for Ho Chi Minh City, the reason was pretty simple. I graduated in 2011 and there was nothing going on,” Sean told MyTyrone.
“I tried to get a basic job in Belfast but there was nothing really going on and I thought going overseas might have been the answer.
“I was at a loose end though so I decided to go down the English teaching route, I had no intention of going to Vietnam but it was the first job offer that I got.
“I arrived there at 23 years of age not really having a clue what was going on."
Following the sudden and tragic death of his mum Michelle, and his own mental health battles, Sean returned home for three months before deciding to return to Vietnam for the long term.
He said: “To be honest with you that’s why I decided to do the teaching thing in the first place.
“I thought if I don’t tackle this now I’m never going to.
“I was hardly able to sit in a room with 10 or 20 people without having a panic attack.
“This was running hand in hand at the time with my mother’s own decline in her mental health, despite all of our family’s best efforts to help.
“In a weird way when she passed away it put things in perspective for me a lot, in that it could always be worse and you’re not in as bad a personal state as you think you are.
“Whether it was the shock of it or how quickly life changed, it made me go out and have less fear.
“Her death maybe did make me think a bit that way, that life’s too short to play it completely safe because you never know what’s coming.
Working as a teacher and a freelance writer, Sean met his South African partner Lindsay there and in 2019 the pair moved to her native Cape Town.
“I never looked back, and stayed there until 2019. I had the best years of my life and did a lot of growing up.
“I was teaching at a high school and then I got into freelance writing, working for a couple of newspapers and magazines out there.
“In March 2019 I moved out here to Cape Town, and it’s an amazing city.
“I’m sitting here in a wee cafe beside my house and I can see Table Mountain up the road there, and another kilometre behind that is the ocean, so we’re very lucky in that sense.
“It’s definitely different from home, I’m too used to summertime now. It’s a good life here and you don’t need a hell of a lot to get by. ”
Now devoting himself to writing full-time, Sean said he could work anywhere in the world and didn’t rule out a return home at some stage.
But for now, the Brocagh man is staying put.
Sean added: “South Africa I never expected to happen and Vietnam I never expected to happen, so who knows.
“It’s not just me any more, there’s somebody else involved so I have to think about that.
“I kind of play it by ear and see what way the land lies. There’s no part of me that says I don’t like Ireland or Tyrone.
“In fact every time I go back I think there’s no place like this.”
