Why in the world? 

Writing bios and talking about myself is always tricky but I'll give it a go. First of all, thank you for visiting my blog. I love sharing my travels with others and I hope my journey inspires you to take on your own. A lot of you are my friends and family, thank you for your TREMENDOUS support. There is no way I'd be here without it. 
 
I'm a Minnesota girl solo backpacking the world. I'm moving east from Europe to India, SE Asia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, South America and Central America. Who knows I might even toss in Africa to hit every continent (Antartica too?). My original idea was to travel for around 9 months and wrap up in Central America but like most things in life, this did not go to plan. It turned into 7 months of travel, 4 months back home to save up again and hopefully another 7-10 more months by the end of 2025. My whole focus while I travel is to go with the flow so we'll see where I end up and when, but this is the general plan.

 

I'm currently living and breathing travel, but before this adventure I was an elementary school teacher. Teaching is my heart and soul and I know I'll be led back to it. I encourage my students to always ask questions, the most important one being why. So it would be hypocritical of me to not give you my why: 

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The travel bug got me in 2019 on my study abroad semester in South Africa. I had a taste of the freedom travel offers and there was no going back. Something connected in me there, I really can't put it into words. Simply put, experiencing new places and cultures brings me pure joy. Travel makes me fully present. I get that same, giddy, excitement we often lose after childhood when I'm exploring new places. 
 
At the peak of Covid my parents went though an ugly divorce, we lost our childhood home and my family took a new shape. Even as an adult this devastated me. I hadn’t experienced anything like this before. I felt like I needed to get far away and be on my own to figure out what this means for my life moving forward. I secretly applied for the Fulbright grant to teach english in Thailand for a year. It felt like a shot in the dark but against all my doubts I actually got the grant. I took this as a sign to go. This transition was difficult and required a lot of changes, including a really hard and unfortunate breakup with my boyfriend of five and a half years. But I knew I needed to do it for myself. Sometimes you just know what you need. Living and teaching in Thailand was such a challenging and beautiful experience. I taught english in rural Thailand, alone, for 5 months. Not even halfway through my grant period I received a shocking a call from my aunt telling me that my mom was in the ICU with liver and kidney failure, and given three months to live in her condition. This shocked me to my core. I withdrew from Fulbright and got on the next flight out of Bangkok to Minneapolis.

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The next year is a blur. My mom extended her life expectancy on dialysis, but every day felt uncertain. I spent the next six months living on my mom's couch, helping out in whatever ways I could,  but she needed a transplant. I focused so much on her health I barely noticed my dad's health was slipping too. I unexpectedly lost my dad in the midsts of all of this on July 9th, 2022. It felt like God, the Universe, or whatever you call it was playing a cruel joke. What are the odds of this happening? I loved my dad more than anyone else, that's just how it is with fathers and daughters. Grief, guilt, anger and sadness took over. No matter how hard I looked, there wasn't a bright side to this one. It didn't make sense. I had to keep going though, because the only way through is, well, through. One of my favorite authors, Cheryl Strayed, says, “The universe, I'd learned, was never, ever kidding. It would take whatever it wanted and it would never give it back.”  

 

My mom stayed on dialysis and eventually made it on the transplant list. I got a job teaching elementary art. Uncertainty still lingered. I don't remember feeling hopeful about this after just losing my dad. I actually don't remember feeling much at all, but we keep going. On January 24th, 2023 my mom successfully received a full liver and kidney transplant. It was a really intense surgery, but this was the greatest gift I could ever ask for. A miracle, really. I could breathe again. Feel again. I watched my mom get stronger and stronger and I realized that if she can do it, I can do it too.  

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