Been around the world and back again.

I know, I know… it has been over a YEAR since I last wrote a post, and how guilty I feel. A lot has changed in a year and looking back it is amazing how quickly it has gone by. I changed jobs, changed apartments, but the biggest change of all was all of the traveling I got in. I went to Thailand and back in the early summer months of 2013 while I was in-between my two jobs, and most recently decided I needed a more drastic change in my life and made the move to Australia. Packing a backpack and making a move to the farthest place I could possibly go was both the easiest and hardest decision of my life. I have never lived farther than a 2 hour drive from my friends and family so the initial thought was very daunting.  I asked myself over and over again if this is what I really wanted and if this was the right decision for me at the time, and then finally I just stopped thinking about it and just said yes. I can with out a doubt say it was the best decision I have ever made in my entire life. I completely broke free of everything I knew and everything I was comfortable with to engage in an adventure into the unknown for the foreseeable future.

I lived out of a camper van, I drove a [manual] 4x4 on a sand island, I ate instant noodles for days on end, I lived on a boat and sailed the Whitsunday Islands, My home for two months was an 8 person dorm, I moved to an outback town and worked at the only pub in it. I met so many people that I became instantly best friends with only to say see you soon a short few days later. I fell in love with people and places and opened up to new opportunities that I never once imagined having. Some of these experiences at first were not the most appealing, but were viewed more as a necessity in order to make my travel funds stretch as far as possible. But it was these experiences that ended up being the most memorable; my 8 bed dorm roommates quickly became my family, and my outback barmaid experience turned into a crazy adventure with new close friends.

And as much as I missed my friends and family back home, I never felt incredibly homesick or felt the desire to head home, in fact I wasn't really ready to go home at all. I had built a life there in such a short amount of time that made me truly happy, one that I hope to re-visit some time very soon.

If I can give one piece of advice from my experiences this past year, its to take a chance and do something unknown. Whether its traveling to a new place, taking on a job overseas, changing careers, changing your routine, just do it if it's going to make you happy. As Tina Fey said "say yes, and you will figure out the rest later," your life starts at the end of your comfort zone, and after the truly incredible year I had, I have never heard truer words be spoken.

Live your adventure.