Chapter 1: The Beginning

Soundtrack: Goth Babe - I Wanna Help Your Mind

It’s been six months since I packed up my cute Atlanta apartment and hopped on a one-way flight to Melbourne.

Flashback to March

There I was sitting in my extremely cushy corporate 9-5 with a beautiful safe, clear path up the promotion ladder that I worked insanely hard for, but spending weeknights and most weekends hustling, tirelessly building Ghost Kitchen Creative from Ari and I’s living rooms.

I had dreamt, schemed, and I’m sure drove my friends mad talking of making the move to pursue building the business full time for nearly two years. Every month that was ‘THE month,’ managed to follow with a laundry list of reasons for why another few month extension was needed.

Do I have enough money? Am I 100% certain I don’t have a secret trust fund? Health insurance?? What am I going to do without my queen of a therapist? The excuses went on.

As hard as I’ve tried to be the ballsy, badass over the years, I’ve come to accept ya girl is extremely risk-averse. Making a move that I hadn’t overthought and discerned every possible outcome an endless number of times might as well be my kryptonite. (Yes, Zoloft and I are real good friends.)

And then - one night I got a voice note from Dani, an old coworker turned bestie, who had been living in Melbourne, Australia for the past six months. Typical voice notes from Dani were detailed recounts of her insane travels that started nearly a year ago that I tuned into as if they were the latest episode drop of reality tv, or wise words of wisdom that never failed to leave me ready to conquer the world. This voice note was neither of those things. Instead it was an unhinged pitch to join her in Australia for two months and end with backpacking Southeast Asia for a month.

Since I was young, I had fantasized of becoming a traveling digital nomad and living abroad at some point. In the same breath, I’ve also always fantasized about having abs and magically coming into millions. It was one of those dreams I accepted the probability of ya know… maybe it wasn’t in my cards. (Ya girl likes sweets. Sue me.)

After listening to this voice note, I sat paralyzed in fear. I knew within 30 seconds I was going to find a way to do this. But - we had just finally started to slowly get traction in the business, Ari was adjusting to new motherhood, I had just moved into my new place six months prior and was barely getting my footing living alone for the first time. It was the farthest moment from the right time.

Nothing like your looming 30s and officially almost being too old to qualify for an Australian Working Holiday Visa to send you diving into the deep end.

Flash Forward to Now

I’ve spent the past six months traveling Southeast Asia and Australia, calling Brisbane home basecamp for now - all while continuing to try to grow a business.

Back in September of 2021, a fellow coworker (more importantly, dear friend), left the regional brewery where we both were working on the marketing team to start her own company. As someone who shared the same dream (and has no boundaries), I interrogated her with endless questions. How did you decide to pull the trigger?

She said something to me that I will never forget. These words consistently echo through my head and are ones I re-gift to anyone who will listen on a regular basis.

“I’m trying to build the life I want. Every move I make is to get a step closer to that life.”

Build the life you want.

That is what this adventure is to me. I’m building the life I’ve always wanted.