At the moment, the “Live” area of this blog = travel + a splash of crafty photography fun. Obviously there’s a lot more to life than these two categories, but both are near and dear to my heart, and here’s why.
TRAVEL
I grew up in a military family, relocating every few years, calling countless cities “home”, and somewhere along the way being bit by the all too ravenous travel bug. My family hopped the pond over to Germany during my college years, and suddenly I had a vast, European playground to explore each summer.
Which of course did nothing but propagate my travel addiction. So during the fall of 2013 I went on a whirlwind adventure around the world aboard a ship through an extraordinary program called Semester at Sea. For four months I sailed around the Atlantic Ocean, intermittently taking courses while sailing and exploring new countries while docked.
Not half a year after returning from abroad did the next adventure present itself. When Red Bull advertised a competition to race across Europe using only Red Bull as currency, me and two friends from Semester at Sea jumped on it like ducks on a junebug. We whipped up an application video and with a huge dose of luck, were selected! Within two weeks Red Bull whisked us off to London, supplied us with more Red Bull than we could count (just kidding we counted…106 cans), and suddenly we were racing 100 other teams from around the world across Europe, with just 7 days to make it from London to Berlin without any money, only Red Bull. While Semester at Sea may have taught me how to travel, Red Bull taught me how to travel on the cheap.
So yea, I really like to travel. And am always scanning the horizon for my next possible trip. And usually quantify money by “number of plane tickets that could buy” or “how many Peruvian bus tickets that would be” or the like. So while I’m grounded, I’ll let that travel bug have its way by sharing with you my traveling tips and advice so that you too may let that travel addiction take you to the moon and back. Head over to the travel section to start exploring!
CRAFTY
Onto the crafty side of “Live”. I love crafts, and being crafty, and dumpster diving for things to turn into beautiful works of art. And maybe some of that will end up on the blog, but my most favorite crafty thing is by far photography.
I lived in Alaska for a good while, so my dad and I did a huge long road trip across the country from the east coast to Alaska when I was about 12. I had free reign over our little digital camera along the way, and I remember taking a picture this squirrel and thinking, “I AM THE MASTER OF ALL THINGS PHOTOGRAPHY!” Never mind the pictures of Mount Rushmore or the northern Canadian wilderness. But this squirrel! And looking back it was just a picture of a squirrel, but it started a fire in me.
So I submerged myself in it. Learning everything about photography, taking anyone’s portraits who would let me, and eventually joining the photo staff at my college newspaper, The Daily Collegian. And suddenly the sky was the limit as far as things that could be in front of my lens. Penn State football games in a stadium of 110,000 roaring fans, front row access to big name concerts, and all the breaking news that went along with with unsubstantiated firing of Joe Paterno. Suddenly, having a camera in my hand gave me the confidence to take on anything.
While I may still feel the urge to break out my camera when I see spot news, or you know, squirrels, I channel it instead into this blog!
Live // Eat // Learn
