“If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food, it’s a plus for everybody.

Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.”

-Anthony Bourdain

I grew up in New Hampshire, the Northeastern part of the United States. The state motto in New Hampshire is “Live Free or Die”, which is exactly what I intend to do. We lived on a busy highway. As a child I waited for the bus about fifteen feet away from cars and semi-trucks going sixty-five miles per hour. My mother told me that when I was two years old, my father would babysit me while she worked at the hospital. On a quiet summer afternoon, I took it upon myself to take my black border collie, Smokey, on an adventure. I had one shoe on and brought my Barbie shopping cart. Some unknown force, or perhaps just curiosity, took us across the highway and down a dead end road. I landed on some one’s doorstep. They called the police and I was safely brought home. I was two years old. This event validates that exploring is innate, something that you are born with. My dad tells me to this day “you just always have to see what’s over the next hill”. It’s a miracle I made it across the highway that day completely unscathed. There is always risk with exploration. What’s on the other side of the road or over the next hill is so damn exciting, though.

The extent of my travels as a child were confined to the White mountains in New Hampshire or the beaches of Maine. I took my first plane ride at the ripe age of twenty-three. After graduating with my first degree in biology, we moved to North Dakota for my father’s new job. I lived there for four years, and during this time I graduated with my second bachelor’s degree. Becoming a nurse assisted me with the financial means to travel. As an emergency department nurse, I witness daily how sacred, fragile and temporary life is. I believe in following your gut, your intuition and to bring forth your inner child. I have a lot more highways to cross and hills to climb.

As far as writing is concerned, I would consider myself at level “novice”. I’ve written my friend’s papers, aced all my writing assignments in college and was asked twice by professors to submit my writing to contests. Studying and partying took precedence over any additional writing, I didn’t make the time for it. As I’ve grown older, I have grasped my love for travel. More so, I love to be able to share my experiences and intrigue people with the world that surrounds us. Travel writing is the product of two of my passions melding into one. I believe humans are elite and advanced animals. Animals are meant to explore. There is an entire world out there and we comprise a fortunate society to have the means to see it all. Anthony Bourdain, Christopher McCandless, Lyss Boss and Alexa West have heavily influenced my journey.

I feel that the purpose of life is to adventure and to love as much as possible. I believe I’m lucky to have this knowledge and understanding at such a young age. When I travel I fall in love with places, people, food, and music. Traveling makes one fall in love with life.