Welcome to my blog and well my life. I grew up in the Northeastern part of the United States in a middle class family. Traveling wasn’t part of my childhood unless it was to visit family. I never dreamed that I would eat french macarons at the top of the Eiffel Tower or that I would watch the Northern Lights dance across the arctic sky.
Right: A painfully awkward photo of me eating a french macaron at the top of the Effile tower. What is that white spot on my hat? Bird poop hahaha
College: the makings of a foodie
I learned the value of money quickly so it was no surprise when I decided to go to community college. What was a surprise to everyone including myself was my major, culinary arts. I had always loved to bake with my mom growing up so when I really thought about my future I decided I should pick a career that I would love. You know what they say, if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.
“If you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Confucius
Well I quickly learned that wasnt quite the case. The truth is in most careers that people are passionate about, (food service, cosmetology, automechanics, artist, ect) will require you to work everyday to afford the basics. There were many occasions where I worked 6 days a week and took 3 college courses simultaneously. Busy was an understatement but I absolutely love baking so it was all worth it.
After 4 very long years I was finally about to graduate culinary school wih a culinary arts degree and a baking certificate. Woohoo real life was about to begin!
Coincidentally I was also dating someone. At this point in my life I was fairly sheltered in the dating world. I had 1 serious boyfriend at the end of High School, a few causal flings and dated the mother of all narcissists. The guy I was dating at the time whom shall be named Jackson was your typical bad boy.
No turning back
Jackson was in a band, covered in tattoos (many of which were questionable in taste) and thought doing acid was a pretty tame friday night. He was sweet and cute and gave me to date some of the best sex of my life. He was the definition of wild and that’s exactly what I needed at the time.
As anyone could see we were destined to fail from the beginning, but he got me out of my comfort zone. With Jackson I felt invincible, I danced on a bar top, I smoked weed for the first time and finally started asking for what I needed in the bedroom.
After a few months we decided it wasn’t going to work long term but we remained friends, who would occasionally hookup. It was on one of those nights that he made a comment that still sticks me with me now and ended up being the fire I needed to make me live life. He said “You’re just not exciting, you’re like white bread. Everyone likes white bread but it’s boring and plain.”
“You’re just not exciting, you’re like white bread. Everyone likes white bread but it’s boring and plain.”
Jackson, March 2016
He didn’t say it to be hurtful and he was 100% right and honestly I’m so glad he said what nobody else had the courage to tell me. I was boring, all I did was work I hadn’t been anywhere and I had 0 stories.
The trip of a lifetime
I gave his words some serious thought and decided I needed to start living my best life, so as a graduation present to myself I booked a month long tour to Europe. I booked it completely on a whim because the tour was on sale! I gave it such little thought I actually booked it to leave before graduation, which I was thankfully able to change.
As soon as I booked it I called my Mom freaking out, I was leaving in 6 weeks for a month abroad! I had never left the country and to start of my trip I had 3 days alone in Dublin before meeting up with my tour group, had I lost my mind?! It ended up being an absolutely amazing trip. For all the details check out my first blog post, A snapshot of Europe: Week 1!
My trip to Europe is what gave me the travel bug. For the first time I started to imagine a different kind of life. I no longer wanted to stay still, now I knew it was possible to see the world.
Since then I have had many life changing experiences; such as eating deep dish pizza in chicago, living in the arctic tundra and learning to scuba dive in costa rica.
I still struggle with leaving home, but in the end this is my life to live. In this life I want to eat food from around the world, have lovers from every country and see the beauty around every corner. I hope you stick around to hear about it!