Around the world in 90 days.

(A big shout out to Lauren Blenkinsop, @lblenx for inspiring this post!!)  A few weeks ago, I came across an amazing contest being held by gapyear.com, challenging bloggers to document their next big adventure or to share what their biggest adventure has been so far. Seeing as I've been planning some major projects for the future, what better time then now to share them with you all.

Traveling the world has alway been #1 on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. There's just something about immersing myself into another culture that really fascinates me. But for as long as I can remember I never thought my far fetched dream could ever become reality. Atleast not until about a week ago.

See, I'm from a small town where everyone knows everyone, and chasing a dream like this was always a thought on every person's mind, but never a possibility. After years of only daydreaming, I started to feel stuck. The same routine everyday. Wake up, go to work, come home, eat, sleep, and do it all over again the next day. I was living my life on repeat and  I couldn't take it anymore. So I did what everyone else wanted to do but can't or won't. I quit my job, and started living my life by my rules. Admittedly I was terrified. I was thrown out of my comfort zone, and left with no money and no life. Constantly wondering what should I do now? Look for a better job? Maybe go back to college? Or continue living in the same county with the same routine. I was stuck, again. But then I thought why even go back, why continue to live my life as if the only way out were those 3 options.

And just like that everything changed.

I started to see the world in a glass half full sort of sense. There were so many possibilities hidden with every step, tucked in behind every door, and I was finally ready to embrace that. Starting this blog was only the beginning, now I'm ready to take on the world.

It was only a matter of time before my seemingly impossible dream became reality. I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to travel the world, experience new cultures, try new things, and meet new people all in just 90 days. So I took the next big step in planning out my next big adventure, I put together a list. A list that contained all the places I've only dreamt of visiting. From places in the United States to anywhere around the world. Being that I live and grew up in the U.S. I figured I would begin by backpacking across the continent, hitting up all the big tourist attractions on the "things you must see before you die." List. My number 1 sight I must see in America, is the Niagra Falls. Being that I live in New York and still haven't experienced one of mother nature's most mind blowing sceneries still eludes me. After I successfully make it across the U.S. the plan is to branch out and go global. The first place on my list??? Europe. I've always wanted to say I've lived in another country and Europe being one of the places every bucket lister has probably checked off their list multiple times, how could I not go? Plus there's so much to do that I don't think I'll ever get bored. A must see for me is london. There's nothing more spectacular than living amongst remnants of history, it makes you feel like you're apart of something much bigger than yourself. Also with Paris and italy being just a train ride away, london makes for a great place to travel around. Now would also be the best time to freshen up on my cooking skills. I hope to take lessons from the pro's whilst in Italy. I've heard Sicily has some of the best pastas and pastries that I for one am more than excited to try. We have a whole list of places we want to visit but in hopes of keeping this post relatively short, we'll save that list for another time. 

The next big step in our journey proved to be the hardest. Saving up and organizing the trip. Planning something this big calls for a lot of work and obviously money. So we went out looking for ways to make this dream come to life. The next couple of days were spent making phone calls, and sending out emails. Only to end up with a handfull of empty promises or just no replies. Once again, I was stuck, and was forced to switch up the way we went about making this happen. In an all too familiar spot, we realized we should be focusing on the journey itself not the destination all whilst keeping our 90 day goal floating in the back of our head. So instead we set up numerous amount of meetings. Creating lists of what we wanted to do before leaving each destination. Like visiting the seven wonders of the world, or to dive with sharks in Australia, and of course each list is tailored to fit that destination. In Africa, I'd like to live amongst the native tribes and to visit one of the worlds biggest mysteries (to me atleast) the great pyramids in Egypt. Then we focused on making it all happen, which to be honest is still a work in progress but we plan to take it one city at a time slowly reaching our goal of traveling the world in 90 days. 

So far our next big adventure has been put on hold, but as the saying goes "A journey of a thousand miles, begins with the first step." Our journey has never stopped it's only just begun

Planning this trip has been the most amazing experience in my life. I've been forced out of my comfort zone and will continue to challenge myself in ways I've never imagined possible. As someone who particularly struggles with social anxiety, by taking part of this experience I hope it will help me build up my confidence and help me meet new faces that'll hopefully take something from my story. We'll be documenting every bit of our adventures from when we first board the plane to successfully checking off an item from each new list. More importantly we'll be taking you guys along with us every step of the way!

Like they say a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Our journey has never stopped, it just begun.