I’ve escaped New York — though it does call me back occasionally. After a lovely childhood in Albany and four years studying and working in Brooklyn, I called quits on conventional and bought a one way ticket out of the country. I’ve since celebrated my one-year, two-year, and three-year travelversaries and with no end date in sight, I still feel like I’m on the ride of my life. There’s no end date, no itinerary, and no real backup plan. Just adventure, adrenaline, and a lifetime of globe-trotting daydreams to fulfill.

Along the way I indulge my passions for photography, design, scuba diving, and squealing over small animals. I’ve spent most of my life fighting an incurable case of wanderlust. Now that I’ve found a way, at least for now, to make my life centered around travel, I feel like I am Alex in Wanderland. Not to mention, I was a pretty big fan of a certain book and movie character who had a penchant for chasing crazy characters down rabbit holes…

I started blogging to document my two-month trip to Southeast Asia in the summer of 2009. I cried the night before I left; terrified of eating dinner alone, getting lost in the airport, and having my camera stolen. That summer I fell head-over-flip-flops in love with the adrenaline of travel, realized there were people out there truly living this nomadic lifestyle that I thought only existed in my head, and discovered that the aimless yearning and restlessness I had been feeling for years was suddenly quieted and peaceful. I had loved every one of my previous trips abroad, but this one was different. I returned to New York, determined to build a life of travel.

The next two years were a blur of art supplies, plane tickets, and juggling jobs as I finished up my fine arts degree. In 2011, I left New York to travel full time and have not had a permanent address since. In my early travel days, I worked as a bartender and a babysitter, handed out flyers for three dollars an hour and returned cans for five cent deposits. Whatever it took to stay on the road!

I’ve escaped New York — though it does call me back occasionally. After a lovely childhood in Albany and four years studying and working in Brooklyn, I called quits on conventional and bought a one way ticket out of the country. I’ve since celebrated my one-year, two-year, and three-year travelversaries and with no end date in sight, I still feel like I’m on the ride of my life. There’s no end date, no itinerary, and no real backup plan. Just adventure, adrenaline, and a lifetime of globe-trotting daydreams to fulfill.