The Unexpected Path | How Travel, Volunteering & the Ocean Shaped Charlie Bennett's Journey

And so an ad came up on my Facebook for a master's in marine governance and policy at the University of Tasmania.

And I was like, whoa, that's crazy.

Because a bit of context, I had originally planned to go back and do my master's at UQ in conservation science when I got back from Thailand and after that trip I was like there is no way I can go back to uni now like I'm going to Europe see you later I'm living my life I need I need a break um so I texted my mom and I was like from the Galapagos I'm in my hotel room I was like hey mom I'm coming back I'm moving to Tassie and I'm gonna go get my masters she was like yeah right I'll believe it when I see it okay charlie literally and so i enrolled while i was there i applied to enroll and i booked my flight home um for like a month's time from columbia because i still really wanted to go and see columbia um so i did that and then yeah got home saved up again i messaged my so i while i was um on the island and in Exmouth, I was also volunteering with this group called Coexist or Coexist Australia.

And I was helping their CEO and founder to kind of help build Coexist and recruit people and manage and all that kind of stuff, which was really, really cool.

And so Coexist works to get young people, basically young Australians back outside and doing things like hikes, beach cleanups, tree plantings, and just to like It's kind of the idea of like you protect what you love, but you can't love what you don't know.

So we were kind of that bridge between getting people back outside and knowing and learning about their local environment and then they could love and then hopefully protect it.

So I was yet volunteering with them for about two years as their like operations manager, which was really cool.

But then I went, yeah, on this trip to South America and I was like, I can't do this anymore.

And it was just like the internet on the Island wasn't great, which meant remote work was a bit hard.

But yes, I messaged Kurt when I got back and I was like, Hey, I'm back.

Like, let me know if I can like what I can do.

I really want to get involved again.

And, And he was like, oh, we've actually got money now.

We can pay you.

I was like, whoa, slow down.

That's crazy.

How exciting.

Literally.

So it was great.

I got home.

I started this remote job.

I went and moved to Hobart and I did like a little road trip on the way down there.

So I went and saw a lot of the East Coast between my home on the sunny coast and then Hobart.

um which was yeah really really cool took my friend elise who took me to oahu with her family she came over and visited oh that's i took her on the road trip

with me finally got to repay someone