In my childhood home, we had a room called "the playroom"- bright yellow & pale blue walls covered with childhood artwork that consisted of imaginative creatures, bold colors, and various attempts of painted self-portraits. 

Above the entryway, my dad hung a frame that stuck out like a sore thumb. On the bright yellow wall hung a glass frame with a dark green piece of paper underneath with a quote written in sharpie marker. It was probably the worst color scheme of all time.

The saying read, “the most important things in life aren’t things."

I vaguely remember my dad telling me about this saying when I was younger. He explained that we often get too caught up in life focusing on materialistic things, how things look or comparing what we have or don't have to others. He said, "those things don't matter." It matters about the house that has love in it and shows it has been lived in.

It's about the countless memories, not about having the latest new things, it's about the experiences along the way, the trips that bring us joy, the laughs we share, and the quality time together, not the materialistic items that only provide short term meaning or happiness. This quote always confused me in my younger years cause I would think, well I'm a thing? A trip is a thing we do?

But as I grew older, having this quote engrained in the back of my mind from a young age, I slowly began to recognize its true importance within my own life and how it would consistently encompass my decisions and outlook on the future.

To be honest, I didn't even quite fully conceptualize this quote until my junior year of college during my study abroad experience in Florence, Italy. Little did I know those 5 months abroad would transform me into someone who is now basing her entire life on that singular experience. It's where I truly realized the importance of that little saying in my playroom. It's where I learned that the most important things in life aren't actual, physical things.

But that realization didn’t happen in the smoothest of terms…

It wasn't until my roommate accidentally spilled a glass of water on my laptop and completely destroyed it. Sobbing outside of the Italian Apple store after they told me the laptop couldn't be salvaged, I was most upset because a video compiled together of memories from my first week in Italy was now gone and I would never be able to recreate it the way I once had it.

Matching videos of small core memories perfectly to songs was something that brought me so much joy. It was a keepsake that allowed you to relive the whole experience all over again. It was my favorite way to document my experiences and keep them alive in the way that they had been lived in the moment.

Although it was unfortunate to now have a useless $2000 laptop, it was when I realized the true importance that the most important things aren't things.

It wasn't about the broken laptop, it was about the memories that brought me joy, rewatching and reliving those little moments of present life and happiness.

It caused a shift in my perspective that made me realize what that saying truly meant.

It was true - the most important things in life aren't things.

The most important things are the experiences, smiles, laughs, time spent with those you love, and being present- not actual, physical things.

Coming back to the states after such a high of traveling to new places and experiencing new cultures with endless happy moments and little lessons learned,

I was truly inspired by the realization that I had the power and responsibility to create my life exactly the way I wanted it.

When I came back to college to finish my junior spring semester, I had a clearer outlook on life and the direction I wanted to go post-graduation. I wanted to replicate that continuous joy I had when I was abroad and that's when I knew I needed to incorporate travel into my future life someway, somehow.

That is how my passion for travel therapy came to fruition.

I knew I wanted a lifestyle that wasn't tied down (yet) by settling into one location, job, relationship, etc, and would give me the freedom to explore new places & create new experiences.

Fast forward 3 years & here I am ready to start my travel therapy journey. If I’ve learned anything in this life so far it's that things always work out. It may not work out in the exact path or plan you had envisioned for yourself but it always works out in some capacity. It was always the little moments or decisions I made that contributed to some of the biggest and boldest moments in my life.

 Do I know where I'm even going yet, what will happen, or if I will even like this lifestyle? No.

I don't have any of the answers, but that's the beauty of life.

With hopes of finding where I'm truly meant to be, where my sole happiness thrives, and learning little lessons along the way, I hope this journey of mine will inspire at least one person to follow their heart because I've had this goal for the past 3 years and it's crazy cool to see it finally coming to life.

And, if something is really that important to you,

you’ll always find a way.