At the moment I’m just NatGeo pipe-dreaming my way around the world. My goal is simply to ‘live the dream’, and by ‘the’ dream I mean ‘my’ dream. People sometimes say to me, “I’m so jealous of your travels,” “You are so lucky,” “Must be nice to have your life,” and all I can think is, “You could be doing the same thing if you really wanted to.” No guts, no glory – those are words to live by. Take risks, make sacrifices, improvise, but most importantly play by your own rules. Why not? And so that is how I’ve chosen to lead my life. The world is my oyster. I say ‘Yes’ to new opportunities. I say ‘No’ if I want to. I take chances. I dream big.
Thanks to my journalism degree from the University of Florida I am always changing and improving my site in the hope of expanding my audience and reaching out to more curious souls around the globe who need a little inspiration to pack up & go. The idea behind the site is to share my experiences and to inspire others to start living like there is no tomorrow, Carpe Diem! Eventually it would be nice to earn a living doing something related to my website, whether it be photography, writing, or multi-media story-telling. Like Hunter S Thompson said, “If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.”
In September 2011 I left the states with a one-way ticket to Indonesia & beyond with my friend Casey. Together we spent 5 weeks stumbling through Indo before heading to Australia where we couch-surfed down the eastern coast from Cairns to Sydney and then making our home in Tasmania for four months. With winter fast approaching, we high-tailed it back to Indo for another holiday, which then turned into a 6-month train-wreck. I thought I had found a dream job working for a travel & lifestyle magazine, but it was a huge disappointment, so I hit the road back to Australia on the pursuit of happiness. I spent 3 months in Western Australia with a home base in Port Hedland and a roaming distance of 13,000 kilometers (epic road trip). During this time I came to some realizations about what I wanted to happen in my future, and my ambitions became more defined. In Feb 2013 I set my sights on New Zealand with the intention of pursuing my gonzo dreams and diving head first into the unknown to see if I could land on my feet. The rest is history in the making.
