After I graduated, I traveled. I spent 6 months wandering around Europe, staying in hostels from London to Fez, through to the Cech Republic and Corfu. I have never spent the time to count the number of countries I visited. I slept on park benches, in airports, and in 5 star hotels. I ate tapas in a pre-Airbnb house sit in Sevilla, won a beer drinking relay in Corfu, took tea during Ramadan in the medina in Fez, and found myself growing up.
I experienced a major heart break a month or so into the trip. My friend that I’d originally planned the trip with (who had been my boyfriend, and who had reestablished our relationship at the beginning of the trip), decided that he actually ‘loved’ someone else. I remember the bottom dropping out of my heart, and physically falling onto the curb outside an internet café in Madrid after finding out. Still, twenty years on, I can feel this. Devastating.
We continued to travel together for a bit, and then I met up with another friend that was traveling around Europe at the same time. She and I met up at Oktoberfest in Munich. We’ll skip over that experience for now…hah! It was a wild time.
Once I was away from this reminder of sadness and disappointment, I started to rebuild. I experienced one of those moments in life where you simply have to pick yourself up and walk forward. Going home was not an option. I had said I was going to travel and, dammit, I was going to travel.
We smoked weed in Amsterdam (more on that in a future post…), stayed in a waterfront hotel in Portugal, celebrated my birthday with fresh clams in Brugges, and just generally had the time of our young lives. I was still broken, but I started to mend. Travel has a way of taking you out of your troubles and launching you into new experiences, that expand your mind and challenge you to grow.
When I wrapped up my travels, my ex had decided that we should give it a go again. Silly me, I agreed, but it didn’t last. I returned home to friends that had all met their significant others, and settled into jobs. I felt a bit behind, but that didn’t last long. Traveling was worth it. I learned so much about resilience and recovery. I managed tough situations with different cultures and languages, and in the end found myself ordering my breakfast in fluent Spanish. I found a job quickly, and established myself in Seattle, WA, but I have never stopped traveling.
Over the years I went further East, living and working in some of the most fascinating places. I finally made it to Buenos Aires and learned how to make empanadas. I stayed with friends in Croatian cities on the coast, exploring the Game of Thrones set. I did a week long wellness retreat at a non-English speaking resort in Turkey. I worked for the NGO, Riverkids, in Cambodia for a month helping them build a marketing plan for their program.
I’ve recently settled down with my husband and our gorgeous pup, Maizie. I say settled down, while in reality I mean settled up. We are building our lives together so that we can continue to explore and stretch into our golden years. I aim to never have a point in my life where I stand still. I want to always be growing, experiencing, and stretching. What else is there?
Love Kristen
mumura 