A Life-Changing Journey: Reflections on 2024

Year #2 of this crazy journey has come to an end.

I still can’t believe that it is real. It feels like it has been 5 minutes and a lifetime all at once. And I feel the same and completely different in the same breath.

24 months ago, my life changed on a dime. I often think back to that day in my living room when I was sitting on the couch debating whether or not I was going to confront my husband about his infidelity. Yes, I was considering not even addressing it. How in the world I thought that I was going to be able to sit idly by and live with it, I will never understand. Still, your coping mechanisms, your brain, and your ego will work in mysterious ways to protect you under immense pain and stress. Thank God I didn’t listen to my brain or my ego that day, and instead, I chose to listen to my heart. I got up off that couch, confronted my husband, and never looked back.

From Heartbreak to Empowerment: My Transformative Journey

Two years later, I can’t believe where I have been and what I have done! Between this year and last year, I traveled to 15 different countries. I embraced my love of yoga and became a certified instructor. I climbed to Mt. Everest Base Camp. I lived in both Thailand and Vietnam. I spent 10 days in a silent Buddhist meditation retreat in India. I met the Dalai Lama. I swam under countless waterfalls. I watched hundreds of sunsets. I started writing a book. I took a marketing course and a business course to learn how to run my business. And I am currently teaching yoga and writing blogs for a resort in Costa Rica. It’s almost too much to comprehend.

Embracing authentic living in 2024…

But what is equally crazy, is that it’s not really crazy at all.

Discovering the True Me: A Nomad’s Story

One of the most important things I have realized this year is that deep down I am the same person I have always been. I have always been the Thrill Seeker, the Adventurer, the World Traveler, and the Independent Nomad. She was always inside of me this whole time. I just never allowed her to fully live.

I buried her deep down below all the expectations of family, friends, and society. I let television, movies, and media dictate who I became. I followed the “rules” and did what I was told and didn’t ask a lot of questions, even though deep down inside my gut was telling me, “No, No, No! This isn’t your path.” I ignored my intuition and did my best to fit into the mold that was silently bestowed upon me.

Breaking Free from Societal Expectations: A Path to Self-Discovery

And why did I do this?

Honestly, because I didn’t know that I could go a different way. When I used to see social media posts of people traveling for a living and doing what I am doing now, I used to think to myself, “God, they are so lucky. I wish I could do that.” I never once said, “That is so cool! I am going to do that too.” Instead, I stewed in my jealousy, got even more depressed about my own life, and then did absolutely nothing to change it.

What person in their right mind does that?

The answer, sadly, is most of us. We are just too afraid to rock the boat. To stand up and say, “Nope. I’m done with that. It doesn’t serve me, and I am going to move mountains to change my life and find something that does serve me.”

As I said before, I have had a bunch of realizations this year that I am actually the same person that I have always been. Before I left home for the second time last year, I came across my journal from when I studied abroad in Paris during my junior year of college. I was 21 years old. I read the whole journal front to back and at the end, I was shocked to see what I had written.

I was the last of my friends to leave Europe. So I spent one night alone in Interlaken, Switzerland, and then two nights alone in Paris before my flight departed back home to America. In this timeframe, I wrote incessantly about how I didn’t want to go home, about how I finally felt so comfortable in my body, and about how I finally felt alive. Did I have to go home? Could I stay in Interlaken and work at a hostel? Maybe I could stay in Paris and work at the study abroad office? I wanted to so desperately.

But I knew I had to go home. I had to finish college, get a job, find a man, blah, blah, blah. And I did it all. I did everything that I was supposed to do.

Of course, it took me longer than everyone else. I was the last to do everything. I was the last to find a boyfriend and the last to get married. I never did buy a house or have children of my own. And the entire time, I had a very unconventional job working in the music industry. I always thought something was wrong with me. Why didn’t my life look like everyone else’s? I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was unconsciously avoiding all of these life milestones because I didn’t want them.

All the signs were there for so long…

After I returned to America from Paris, all I wanted to do was work in the study abroad office on campus. I would have done anything to prolong that feeling of completeness I had in Paris. After graduation, I moved to New York City. I suppose this was my version of a foreign country, and the challenge suited me and quieted my desire for travel. After I got a job in the music industry, I moved all over the United States from New York to Charlotte to San Francisco and to Chicago. I never could settle down. It just wasn’t in my nature. But even after all of this, I still didn’t listen to myself, and I still proceeded to try to fit myself into a box that I didn’t belong in.

The Power of Listening to Your Intuition

And that leads me to what I have learned this year: I will listen to myself, whole-heartedly, and I will never again ignore what I hear.

I have learned to hone in on my intuition. To listen to my soul. To let my inner knowing guide me. And to be in touch with my spirit, the stars, and the Earth. I am now closer to nature, the Universe, and myself than I have ever been, and I can’t tell you how natural that feels to me. It’s so cliché, but I feel like a bird finally freed from her cage.

How solo travel fosters personal growth…

I keep saying that this journey has changed me, but honestly, that is not really true. I am the same person that I have always been. What has changed is that I am not hiding anymore. I’m no longer afraid to stand up and scream from the rooftops, “I like being alone! I don’t need (or want) a boyfriend! I don’t want kids! I don’t want to be married! I love solo travel! I love taking care of myself!” And damn it—I am NOT sorry about any of these things. I will not let anyone tell me that I am being selfish, either. I am so over that! Let’s set aside the fact that self-care is so important for a moment and just acknowledge that we are a diverse population. What you and I need in our individual lives can be profoundly different. Just because I need more self-care and alone time than you doesn’t make me selfish. It just makes me, ME.

Looking Ahead: Your Road Less Traveled in 2025

So thank you, 2024. The lessons have been real, and I’m so glad that I am finally able to hear them.

My wish for you in 2025 is that you are able to hear your own inner voice too. Your body and soul are telling you who you are every day. The question is, will you stop and listen? Or will you continue on the same path?

Robert Frost once said, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

Here’s to you, and to taking the road less traveled in 2025!  Happy New Year.  🥂

Ready to embrace your own transformational journey in 2025?

Discover the power of listening to your intuition, breaking free from societal expectations, and building a life true to your passions. Share your story in the comments, or connect with me to explore how you can start your own path to self-discovery and authentic living. Let’s inspire each other to take the road less traveled!