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My first trip outside the country was to Cancun, Mexico when I was about 10. I saw my first world wonder, Chichen Itza, when the step pyramid was still open to climb. My next trip abroad was at 18 when I went on a high school trip to Italy and Greece. Even then, my wanderlust didn’t hit yet. The societal norms of going to a 4-year college and having a family after you graduate were so engrained in my head that I tried my hardest to stay on that path.

After 3 colleges in 3 cities, my path was starting to look more like a stressed out heart beat. I wanted something different. I just didn’t know what. I ended up dropping out of school and moved to Miami to pursue modeling. My modeling ‘career’ was short lived but Miami quickly showed me what else the world had to offer. It was vibrant and exciting. The people were well-traveled and the city itself is a melting pot of different cultures. 

I started looking for different jobs and ended up booking a travel tv show in the Caribbean (which is a longer, slightly humorous story I’ll tell another time). While I was traveling for the show, I started learning photography and documenting my experiences (travel blogging without even knowing it). I discovered my love of writing and telling stories, and decided to go back to school for English and Creative Writing. 

Even after graduating, I still didn’t quite know what to do next or know what a career path would look like for me. I couldn’t really afford Miami on an English degree and just sort of felt like I needed to have an adventure. I needed to challenge myself and figure out life. So, I made a decision on a whim to move abroad to China to teach English. (I don’t know why I felt the need to move to China to figure out life, but there I went.)

After an excruciatingly long year in which I got food poisoning in my first week, woke up to a dead stray cat in my bed, missed more trains and planes than I made, and nearly broke my toe as a last departing gift from China–I was finally done with my contract. Needless to say, it was one of the worst years of my life, lol. And no, I did not figure out life. But I did have one hell of an adventure.

Enough time has passed that I can look back at my time in China and laugh instead of cry but just barely (kidding. sort of). But honestly, my China stories are some of my favorite ones to tell. No good story starts with ‘everything was fine’ after all. But one of the main reasons I stuck it out was so that I could save up my money and travel SE Asia when I was finished with my contract.

You’d think I would have crawled home crying after my year in China but instead, I took off on another adventure and spent 3 months traveling solo.

I climbed a volcano in Indonesia, had a Crazy Rich Asian experience in Singapore and rode on the back of a motorbike in a ball gown in Vietnam. I got scuba certified in Thailand, got ripped off in Cambodia and celebrated my birthday in the Philippines. Six countries later and I was on my way back home after 15 months abroad. SE Asia was like chicken soup for the soul after a rough year in China and even though I’d been away for awhile, I couldn’t wait to travel again.

When I was in China, I decided to start writing about my adventures (and mishaps) and the places I’d been. And thus, my travel blog was born–the first version of it anyway.

I have a full-time job in marketing, so I’m not a full-time travel blogger (I wish). But I try to travel as much as I possibly can and I’m always trying to find new adventures to have!

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