What brought me here, and why I have decided to “be a blogger”.
If you heard it once, you have heard it a thousand times; your college years are the best years of your life.
Okay, cool.
So maybe you think that this is a complete line, but in my experience, college has been the place I have pushed myself to try new things, to stop standing on the sidelines, to start living my life. In essence, everything that I claim to do but never actually left my cozy comfort zone for. Well, here goes nothing! I am not saying the college experience have been the best years of my life. I am twenty-one years old, and kinda-sorta hope that whichever dive bar we hit after Friday’s Calc quiz isn’t what defines me from here on out. But it certainly has had an impact on shaping my beliefs, my humor, and so much more. Jokes aside, this is the place where I have met some truly amazing people, learned about life and love, and dove in to exploring the world around me.
My relationship with travelling did not begin until I was 18. I applied to several colleges, and on a whim, I chose the one 10,000 miles from the heart of Texas. I wasn’t particularly well-travelled (as in, I had been out of the U.S. a shocking ONCE), I didn’t exactly plan it out (but what 18 year old does?), and yet somehow, I ended up exactly where I needed to be. A few months later, donning a violet T-shirt, I ended up in Shanghai, China.
Essentially, I picked my path in life the same way I pick out reading material: whatever is available where the cover looks interesting.
But hey, it brought me this far.
From Shanghai, I ended up going all over the place. Not going to lie, this is mainly due to the affordability of travelling within Southeast Asia, because once you’re here, it’s really cheap. I mean CHEAP-cheap, like the, “holy-sh*t-this-can’t-be-real” cheap. What started as a casual convenience blossomed into a lifestyle. I caught the travel bug. Wanderlust, infatuation, desire, whatchamacallit. (This will be an interesting issue to contend with if I am ever living in a place that is, let’s say, not so CHEAP-cheap.) For now, visiting new places is fun, affordable, and a little luxurious break from exams and papers.
Outside of travelling, I am your average American girl. I would say average Texan, but that tends to stir up images of cowboy boots and daisy dukes. And yes, I do own several of both, but let’s try to look beyond that! I like Kraft Mac & Cheese (miss me with your Velveeta nonsense), lime green, and crocheting scarves. I have an obsessive fascination with all things relating to human anatomy and neural sciences, much to the dismay of my family at the dinner table. I have the most disjointed music taste of anyone with a spotify playlist. I am a little here and there, and I am quite happy with that.
So that’s who I am, what I like to do. I visit little landmarks and big cities and I bop around the world. I try crazy foods and I take pictures at beaches. I spend hours looking at tickets and I plan out my summer vacations. I found a passion I love, and I want to share it with you.
I hope that this little blog serves as a diary of sorts. A way to condense my experience as an American abroad in a way that is fun and inspirational. I don’t travel to write, I travel because it is one of the most wonderful things you can do. To escape the mundanity of the everyday and see things a little differently (or you know, just to see things). To look back and think, “That was a REALLY good time!”. To show that sometimes, the best things happen on impulse decisions.
That is how I came to be and where I am heading. I have so many plans for the future. I am excited to see where the airplanes will take me. I am going to pursue this passion, I am going to be ‘young’, to enjoy everything the world has to offer. I am going to keep making split decisions, but this time, I am laying it all out here.
If you have some of the same interests, or you’re like me and think I’m funny, feel free to follow along. Let’s see what the world has to offer!
A Travel Date With Laura Kate 