A Year in Review

It’s been a year since I graduated from Queen’s University. Since then, I’ve…

• Seen the Blue Angels practice
• Driven to Florida and back
• Survived my first tornado warning
• Seen all kinds of wildlife
• Visited my best friend in Indy
• Tried oysters for the first time
• Eaten a pile of crayfish
• Learned to run a farmers market booth
• Explored New Orleans
• Slept through the tail end of a hurricane – in a tent
• Worked on a friends farm
• Consolidated everything I owned into a 40 litre backpack for almost a year
• Left my first self-made home and everything familiar
• Supported myself with a self-created business
• Boarded a flight to Bali and decided not to look back
• Led a group of 40 teens at the Family Adventure Summit
• Traveled solo for 7 months
• Explored Stockholm, Hong Kong, Turkey, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Indonesia, and the UK
• Skied a volcano
• Couchsurfed
• Ran from monkeys and street dogs alike
• Learned to drive a moped
• Tried port, camel burgers, kebab, tapas, giblets, haggis, blood pudding, and so much more
• Fell in love with chai
• Got lost, repeatedly
• Had to leave a bad housing situation
• Was chased down an alley by a group of teen boys – scary
• Learned to style a headscarf
• Cooked paella 
• Played fiddle where I couldn’t communicate any other way
• Went to concerts, street performances, open mic nights, and plays across Europe
• Bought a ukulele
• Got very sick, alone, twice
• Stayed in hostels
• Snuck into university lectures abroad
• Overnighted in an airport
• Wandered marketplaces and haggled
• Climbed enormous dunes in the Sahara
• Rode both a camel and a mule
• Got lost in Fez
• Mended my own sad heart and fell for someone new
• Danced around a bonfire under the stars
• Put my feet in the Black Sea, the Pacific Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean
• Almost fell off a horse at full gallop
• Climbed into a tomb dating back to 300BC
• Hiked 10 miles up a desert canyon
• Stayed in an uber-fancy airport hotel
• Was called home due to COVID
• Helped plant a garden and build a dock
• Tried a gazillion new recipes in quarantine
• Learned to longboard
• Learned that I definitely need kneepads for longboarding
  
  Is this Unschooling 2.0? Because I love it.