✉️ A Note on the Voyage Journal
The Voyage Journal is a collection of personal reflections written throughout my travels—capturing raw moments, transitions, and experiences as they happened. These entries are less about guides and more about the human side of the journey.
From time to time, I write a deeper one. I wasn’t even sure about posting this, but in a lot of ways, this helps explain what drives me and what’s pushed me to become not just a better traveler, but a better human being overall.
Here we go… ❤️
This week, eleven years ago, I walked across that stage and graduated college with a degree in Digital Media. To this day, I still consider that day day one of my life.
Truth be told, I never really landed the kind of job or career in Digital Media that I thought I would, outside of what I now do through my YouTube channel and blog. It used to bother me. I bounced through jobs across three different states only to end up unemployed again and again. But even with that, I never really gave up on what was always there underneath it all.
That growing curiosity I had about the world.
World travel.
Key West, Florida, The first solo trip
It hasn’t been the easiest decade. There’s been heartbreak, depression, near-suicidal lows, anxiety, loneliness, unemployment, lack of direction, being broke, injury, more heartbreak, a pandemic, and now a world that somehow still feels unstable.
But somewhere in between all of that, and thirty-nine countries later, one thing has never changed.
If anything, it’s gotten stronger.
I always find a way.
No matter what is going on in my life or in the world, there is always a way.
2015: Havana, Cuba | 2016: Santorini, Greece
Sometimes I don’t even stop long enough to appreciate how unbelievably beautiful my life actually is. I’m truly free in ways I once only imagined. I know that if I wanted to, I could go to India for three months. Oregon sounds cool, I could try that. Teach English in Vietnam, why not.
The degree didn’t pan out the way I hoped, but I kept going. It didn’t matter how shattered my heart was in a relationship, I kept going. It didn’t matter how little money was in my bank account, I kept going.
2017: San Francisco, California
A decade ago, I used to be bitter and angry. Now I feel far more grounded in heart, love, joy, and peace. What used to trigger me now gets met with thought. I recognize much faster what actually matters and what doesn’t.
And lastly, I don’t people-please the way I used to, and I don’t need validation like I once did. I could be alone for a year in Hawaiʻi and still be the happiest person on the planet.
At this point, there are really only two people, outside of my family, that I care about making proud.
Five-year-old me, who just hoped I’d grow into someone who lived an adventurous and meaningful life.
And seventy-five-year-old me, looking back, knowing I lived fully with as few regrets as possible.
2022: Maui, Hawai’i
The past ten years have proven something to me. If I made it through all of that, then whatever the next ten years bring, I can handle that too.
I don’t have shame or embarrassment about sharing parts of my life like this anymore. Not just because I’ve moved through a lot of it and know I’m stronger because of it, but because someone out there might actually need to read this.
If that’s you, keep going.
There’s a way….ALWAYS!
