The Wandering Writer

Just as a general note, I am awkward at introductions so please forgive this initial post. Stick around for future posts in which you can accurately judge whether my words are entertaining (which is all that I aspire to) or if you’d still rather play Candy Crush on your phone. Don’t worry, I won’t be too crushed (see what I did there?).

Hello and welcome to The Wandering Writer! I have been freelance writing for over ten years, writing for pleasure for twenty, and traveling since I was born (not hyperbole: I’m a military brat). I’m starting this blog because I am soon setting off for Southeast Asia and do not have any plans to head back to the States or settle down anytime soon. This blog will be full of my travel adventures, travel musings, and general tips and advice.

A little about this Southeast Asia trip/move:

I’m calling it a “trip/move” because, ideally, I would like to land a teaching job somewhere, but I do not currently have anything lined up. I’m also not 100% which Asian country I want to end up in. Perhaps I’ll just bop around for a bit and see what happens. I started planning this move three years ago, just before beginning graduate school. From the moment I was accepted into the graduate writing program I planned to get my degree and then move abroad.

My father passed away unexpectedly a week before I started my final year of graduate school. This loss is still something I am learning to live with (and I think you never stop learning). That first semester is kind of a blur to me, but somewhere in the fall months my boyfriend (of nearly seven years), Ross, and I decided to move to Vietnam. The plan was I would graduate in May, Ross and I would spend the summer on the coast of Georgia, where both of our families lived. I would help my mum put her house in order and Ross would finish his engineering job. We would move to Vietnam at the end of October.

Then: the eve before my graduation, completely out of the blue and over the phone, Ross dumped me. (He started by saying, “I’ve got some bad news,” but I think “devastating” or “rip-your-heart-out-and-light-it-on-fire-while-you’re-already-grieving” would have been better descriptors.) I could spend months and years wondering why he chose the night before my graduation (he called at 11:30 p.m.), but c’est la vie he never enjoyed traveling anyways so I think it’s safe to say I am better off without him. (He said he doesn’t care if he never steps foot in Africa or Asia. Why live such a boring life?)

Reeling from both of these losses—Ross and my dad—I decided to stick with my “moving to Asia” plans even if I was now going it solo. I spent the summer helping my mother get her house in order and stayed with her as she recovered from surgery. Then Hurricane Irma passed through and, like a kleptomaniac on speed, she took my car and nearly all of my possessions (furniture, clothing, books, kitchenware, etc.).

This is all to say that in the Fall of 2016 I planned to move to Vietnam for a year with my boyfriend. Now, in the Fall of 2017, balancing so much loss that it’s bordering on a tragicomedy, I’m going solo to who-knows-where, have only a general outline of a plan (flying to Bali in late October and then…), and I am pretty excited about it. I’d say “I couldn’t be happier,” but with the abruptness of a death and a break-up still weighing on me then mixed with losing everything to Irma…well check back with me in a month about where I fall on the Happiness Scale.

Why Asia? you might ask. Is it because it’s become the cliche travel destination of the millennial generation and, as a twentysomething, I am bound by my age to follow in the 50+ footsteps of my friends and acquaintances?

No.

I was born in England and then lived in Cuba and Germany. I have been very fortunate to travel to multiple times to Europe, the Caribbean, and Central America. I want to go to Asia because I want to go somewhere completely different from where I’ve been before. It’s been a rough thirteen months. I’m ready for a drastic change.

So there you have it: the makings of The Wandering Writer. If you’ve read this far: thank you! I promise future posts will be more thought out, story-esque, and just all around better.

Let’s get ready to wander!

**Pictured above is the car that Irma destroyed: Odysseus (aka Odie, my love of ten years). He is pictured here on Georgia O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch in New Mexico—just one of his many adventures! RIP dear Odysseus.**