I’ve had this headache. For the past two weeks, on and off. And now my shoulders have inexplicably begun to ache. I know I carry stress in my shoulders. I think it’s safe to assume I’m a bit stressed. For a whole host of reasons that in all honestly aren’t really that bad considering the task of moving one’s life to the other side of the world is no small feat. But the truth is I feel a bit defeated. While there have yet (fingers crossed) to be any truly detrimental issues there have been enough that my body is currently rebelling against me. Continue reading
Author Archives: Jessica
Dublin: Week 1
A week into living in our new city and I have to admit, I had Dublin all wrong. Or maybe, I just hadn’t thought much about it. Aside from the usual visual images conjured up by Ireland the country hasn’t really been on my travel radar. I didn’t know what to expect. As it turns out Dublin is chock-full of things I certainly didn’t expect. Continue reading
The Next Adventure: Dublin.
This is the absurdly awesome library in Trinity College Dublin, where I will be starting my Masters degree in just over a month. I’m pretty sure kids with capes mill about here…
I’m really, very excited to start my degree. And of course, MOVE to EUROPE. It’s a culmination of my interests I’ve garnered since deciding medicine was certainly not for me. So it feels good, after three years of searching for something resembling a purpose to now have a clear directive. Continue reading
Three Years in Review: What Travel has Taught Me.
Forewarning: this is a long one.
It is inevitable, travel changes you. It must. Just as any experience must. But travel in particular has the association of change. Young people going abroad to find themselves, career breakers who realize they haven’t been happy in their jobs, or lives, searching for something new, different, inspiring. As you travel the world is cracked open, you find perhaps what you were looking for, though more likely you find something else all together. You realize the world is full of opportunities you didn’t know existed. You see, and you learn, or at least you do your best to remember. You realize where you’re from isn’t so bad, and that there are more beautiful places to see than a lifetime permits. You also realize its the people, not the places that make travel so enriching. You become addicted to the thrill of travel, of discovery. But when you go home, you realize many of those changes you felt life altering are temporal. You forget, you get sucked back into the grind. But perhaps you are a bit better, certainly a little older, hopefully a little wiser, something will always be changed, even if you forget. And then you crave the person you knew on the road, you must escape the norm and find yourself once again, blissfully free of all the holds and false promises of the western world. The world gives you so much, not all of it joyful, but it imparts a stamp unique to those who chose to venture long term beyond their own shores. It isn’t better, nor worse than other lifestyles, but simply different, and once you’ve set out you can never be entirely the same again.
Colliding With The Earth 