I am constantly chasing the thrill of seeing the world.

Do you follow any Instagram accounts of people that live abroad and travel to crazy destinations every few months? Same – and I envy them. The fact of the matter is that it is not realistic for me, among many others, to live that way. Though I hope I can incorporate travel more frequently in my life in the future.

I am fortunate enough that, though I lived in a small town, my mom insisted we travel and supported my hobbies that required us to travel.

A bit of a background

Just to paint a picture of how small my hometown really is, I graduated with 46 people in my high school class. We knew each other from kindergarten until graduation, and rarely anyone moved away or moved into our school. It’s been 10 years since graduating from there, and I have had the time to reflect on how fun it was and how grateful I am for that experience. From very early on in high school, I knew I wanted to go away to school. Far, far away.

Most of my childhood memories are filled with my many activities and hobbies. My earliest activity was competitive dance and cheer, which then transitioned to competitive power tumbling and trampoline, which then transitioned to volleyball. I also did track and field (emphasis on the field part) for many, many years. I was fortunate enough to get a scholarship to play volleyball at a D2 school in North Carolina at the University of Mount Olive. It’s at UMO that I would get my degree in Recreational Therapy, play volleyball year round, and make countless memories with my college roommate with whom I share a love for Disney with (more on that later).

Most of my travels as a kid were roadtrips to nearby states for volleyball, tumbling, or dance competitions – I have seen much of the Midwest, and once is enough for me. Aside from the more business-instead-of-leisure trips, a lot of our trips were to Disney World and cruises to the Caribbean and Mexico. I wasn’t well-traveled in the sense that I saw many different places, I just saw the same places many times. Again, I am grateful for these experiences but when I started making my own money, I knew I wanted to see so much more.