My Story
When I originally sat down to write this piece my story unraveled quickly and all at once. As I watched the rain drip down cafe windows and violin strings play in my ears, hours went by of relentless tapping.
It was everything and nothing all at once.
8 pages of summarized experience from late high school (nearly 6 years ago) until now unfolded in the most compact way that I knew how. It wasn’t until I went back again to revise that I realized that my life cannot be condensed to a blog post.
Life is so long yet so short, so simple yet so complex; so mind blowing yet so very mundane. And at the meager age of 23 I’ve realized that I’ve lived enough life already to fill countless chapters of a book and have enough life ahead to write so much more.
So this post my friends, can be nothing more but a mere glimpse into my world. A gloss over one would say. And I feel like such a hypocrite for doing so after preaching in my last post how stories are often told after the fact, but never in the moment. My current and ever evolving truth is that both aspects are important here.
My how and now is just as important as my past and why.
So while I am admittedly sitting in a cafe just outside my hometown, figuring my next move in life out as I go, I do feel it is important to outline my recent past in order to set the foundation for my near future.
So I approach my story now, by setting the bare bones. Slowly but surely we will unravel it all and extract the Beauty from it— and the Wisdom. The Excitement— and the Fear. The Joy— and the Grief.
Until we finally cultivate enough grace to admit that wherever life’s going it’s going be great. Because honestly—despite it all— it has been a great life so far. It really has. And if I were to die tomorrow I would surely be satisfied by how much I’ve lived. But for now…
It’s okay to admit that it’s been a great life and also crave more of it.
…
So without further adieu here are some of the Bare Bones of my life story:
Age 4 - 17 : My life consisted of school, gymnastics, and following the straight and narrow.
Age 17 - 18 : After one of the biggest heartbreaks of my life (quitting gymnastics) I started coaching it because it gave me a sense of purpose and direction. (2016-2017)
Age 18: I set off to college to escape the stuckness and angst that weighed on my heart. For the next 3.5 years I studied to get a teaching degree for kids ages 6 - 12ish because the only thing I knew that I was good at was school and teaching gymnastics.
Age 19: In my second year of college, I ironically became an RA and a party girl at the same time. This was the first time I realized that I felt absolutely empty inside. I wasn’t aware of what I was feeling or doing, but life carried on as it should. (2018)
Age 20: I followed slight nudges of curiosity + excitement:
I traveled internationally for the first time with my school to Rome at the end of my sophomore year (May 2019). I spent 2 weeks there. And a week on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea because my family followed me there.
I spent the summer of 2019 (literally 2 weeks after I returned from Europe) at a summer camp in Pennsylvania that— for lack of better words— was wild.
I impulsively applied to get my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate in Prague, Czech Republic. In traditional American fashion, I didn’t even know where Prague was in Europe until I looked it up.
But I spent January of 2020 learning, wandering, teaching English (to Czechs twice my age), and thriving off of coffee, peanut butter + jellies, and beer.
Age 21: Covid hit a month after my 21st birthday. I went home and drove for Doordash the entire spring + summer so I could pay for my last semester of school in cash. I then spent the fall of 2020 in absolute disassociated misery while teaching in a 3rd grade classroom.
Age 22: I had just graduated a semester early and was avoiding teaching full-time like the plague. I realized I wanted more out of the world and life. And after not being able to settle on a place to teach internationally I made becoming a ‘digital nomad’ (working online while traveling) my new dream.
In 2021, I formally graduated, invested in business/mindset coaching, moved to Texas with my aunt, and started building my clientele base as a virtual assistant while substitute teaching in Austin public schools.
Age 23: 6 months after I decided on the digital nomad dream my family was going to Cancun, Mexico for my aunt’s 50th birthday. When they left, I stayed and spent my 23rd birthday and the majority of 2022 traveling throughout Latin America. I went to Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and Colombia all while working (part time) online. And that kind of leads me to now. I returned to the States early last fall and moved back home with my parents (in the suburbs of Chicago) so I could have one home base while contemplating my next move.
Obviously SOOO much more happened within and outside of myself during this time. And as I navigate life week by week and post by post I’m sure glimpses of these will surface along the way. Of course I’ll share these. And I’m completely open to requests.
But the moral of this story is that I’ve realized that each step of my life has been very important in leading to the next.
Without my stuckness and discomfort I would have never longed for freedom. Without my freedom, I would have never met myself at my most deep + intimate moments— halfway around the world and alone. (And while it’s not exactly what I want,) without achieving my ‘digital nomad’ dream I would have never realized how capable I am of making my desires a reality.
The hard part is that the lessons are not something you can fully see until after the fact. The fun part is developing the faith that it’ll work out along the way.
Until next time my friends,
Rose