This is Jamie Ather, a 24-year-old banker from Scotland. Back in August, he spent a Saturday night clubbing in Glasgow — and woke up to find he had drunkenly booked a plane ticket to Rio.
"I have no memory of it," he tells BuzzFeed Life. "I wasn't even planning or dreaming of travel this year at all, because I spent all my money on a trip to Vegas last February."
"I didn't check my email until Sunday afternoon, and that's when I saw one from a flight company that said, 'You have booked and fully paid.' I was shocked and ran out to my dad like, 'YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS!'"
Ather tried to cancel the flight on Monday, but since he'd waited so long, he'd already missed the 24-hour cancellation window.
"It was my own fault," he says. "I wasn't aware there was a timescale since, to be honest, drunkenly booking flights isn't something I regularly do," he laughs.
Ather's initial instinct was to just not go, and simply lose the money altogether (£520, which is about $797).
"Everyone was putting all this fear in me because of safety — South America gets such a bad name. And three weeks by yourself is a scary thought also," he explains.
But then he had a change of heart and decided to ignore everyone's advice and just go for it. "So I built a big trip around it," he says.
And it turns out, he had the time of his life — and doesn't regret his drunken "mistake" one little bit.
So, what's the lesson here? When life hands you an unplanned vacation — or, more broadly, an unplanned anything — sometimes you've gotta just ~go with it~.
"People will put thoughts and fears into your head about going places, and doing activities. Maybe even your own mind will. But please overcome the fear and just go," Ather says.
