From getting lost in the winding passage ways of Venice, to boat rides down Vietnam's Mekong river, our first 12 months of traveling has been quite the adventure!
Us when we arrived in Rome in March 2014
It’s hard to believe that a year ago today we said goodbye to our family, our friends and our handsome dog Karloff. When we set off on this adventure around the world, we had absolutely no clue what the future would look like. We simply left all our “responsibilities” behind, got on a plane to Rome and set off to see where life would lead us.
Us one year later on a glacier in Iceland
I’ll never forget that exact moment when I got out of my parents car, as they dropped us off at the Los Angeles International Airport. My heart felt like it was on pause and I had to do everything I could to (unsuccessfully) hold back the tears. How could we leave our family? How could we leave our dog? How could we just leave everything, and everyone that we knew behind? I was so scared yet excited, so nervous yet intrigued.
In the seconds it took to get out of the car, every imaginable horrific "what if" scenario crossed my mind; What if we ended up having to get airlifted out of a random jungle somewhere? What if we became lost at sea? Would our dog really be okay with my parents? Would we really be able to support ourselves without a “steady” job? Somehow though, I mustered up the courage for one last goodbye, I looked away and crossed through those doors.
Fast forward a year and I can happily say we were never airlifted out of any jungles, nor were we ever lost at sea. In fact, we've never came close to a remotely negative experience in the past 12 months (except for one not so great AirBnB rental in Paris). The truth is, we’re happier and healthier than we’ve ever been -- and since leaving we’ve been able to build this blog into a business together. We have felt safer in these foreign cities than we did walking the streets of San Francisco. We’ve built amazing friendships and have learned to truly cherish those we haven’t seen in awhile. We’re doing better than we ever did "at home" and our quality of life has just gotten…better. I no longer have the fears, I had before, or imagine so many “what ifs.” I embrace the challenges we face and look at life with a completely different attitude. I’ve changed. We’ve changed. And we’re pretty happy about it.
Highlights from our first year traveling
We have had a lot of special “moments” this past year. They aren’t always seeing a tourist hot spot or crossing off an item on our bucket list...they are the little details that make us remember countless stories and memories.
These are a few tidbits from our every day life as perpetual wanderers.