Find Yours! I found mine …

Not too long ago, during a time I’ve written about on this blog before — I was desperately unhappy and in need of a change. Previously lacking in the kind of courage it takes to pursue one’s dreams (that for me always included more travel), I found myself emboldened by the strange sort of freedom a divorce can provide. Newly single meant newly in charge of my own destiny. Newly in charge of my own destiny meant the ability to choose risk that had the promise of reward.

I didn’t grow up with a lot of people who made me feel that I could do anything, pursue any dream or achieve any success I set my mind to. Some small voice inside me was crying out to be that person for others. However, in order to do that for others, I had to believe the impossible could come true in my own life. First.

I sold some of my belongings, got rid of more, packed up things in boxes and eventually moved to NYC, where I could be based between adventures, on a wing and a prayer — after spending some time traveling through the United States, a bit of the Caribbean, Austria and France.

Why do I travel? Why choose a life based around frequent travel where my home is one of the most expensive cities in the US? To prove it can be done: on little to no money, without support sometimes, without a silver spoon, without direction and sometimes with nothing more than wanderlust propelling forward motion.

The more I travel, the more countries and continents I add to the meager list I started this journey with, the more people message me to say that I inspire them. It’s peppered with a lot of people professing jealousy as well. There will always be people like that. I don’t travel for them. A company I am proud to work with on an on-going basis, Expedia.com, is about to launch a campaign they label as: Find Yours.

Well, I found mine. Through travel I have found my PROOF. That dreams can come true, that there’s more than one path to happiness, that fresh starts are possible, that “impossible” is only true if we let it be, that the world isn’t as bad as the news makes it sound, and even that good people can still be found – everywhere. I’ve met more than I can count while out collecting stamps in my passport. In even the most unexpected of places. Some of the best people I know I have met because of traveling. Before I got the passport I have now, I didn’t have too much faith left in my fellow human beings. Travel has helped to change that too. Now, the more I travel, the more I want to help other people in any way I can.

I don’t know what the future holds. Some days it is a broken laptop without a prayer of being fixed and I end up going almost two months without much of an update to this blog. Then, some mornings I wake up with a fixed laptop and a backlog of trips to write about if I can find the time in between other projects. Now home in NYC, with renewed proof that life can still surprise me and that travel is still opening doors — I’m working on writing about England, Italy, Turkey, South Africa, Mauritius, Spain, Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina and all the adventures in between.
I hope to inspire you to … Find Yours. Whatever it is. It’s never too late. Dave, Deb and Trish have found theirs too and if my story doesn’t impact you — I bet one of theirs will.