There are two wolves inside you.

“If I were you, and I worked remote, I’d never be at home.”

This is what my graduate advisor said to me shortly after I graduated in the fall of 2022 while we were on our way to Albania to present research at ICCMS in Tirana. That sentence alone may have permanently altered my brain chemistry.

My presentation at ICCMS 2022 at Beder University in Tirana, Albania.

You see, growing up, I always had wild dreams of travel. But for some reason, along the way, I started to believe that travel just wasn’t for people like me. I love my parents, and they did a lot of things right – but one of the things they instilled in me and my sisters was that you had to earn a good time.

Unfortunately for me, I’m a millennial. The chances I’ll retire? Slim. The chances I’ll own a house? Even slimmer. The concept of traveling once I’ve worked hard and retired? All but nonexistent. But still, I was taught to go to school, get a job, get a house, save for retirement, then travel.

For years, there were two wolves inside me: The first needed to feel free; I could not fathom working in an office with a limited number of vacation days for the rest of my life, and while I always figured I’d grow out of thinking corporate life sounded asinine and who could possibly agree to those terms, I never did. But the other wolf wanted people to think I was responsible and capable — someone who could accomplish things and be trusted with big projects.

I’m a chronic procrasti-planner, so after 6 years in a 2-year grad program, when I landed my first remote job with “flexible time off,” that first wolf knew she’d landed the jackpot, and the second wolf felt like she had her chance to finally prove herself. It was perfect — I finished my degree while working full time, my research was accepted into several conferences, and that was that: From the moment I stepped off the plane for my first academic conference in Las Vegas, I had the travel bug.

(I definitely had it before then, but I’ll save the Adventure of the Seas for another time).

When my graduate advisor (and now close friend) looked at me in the Rome airport lounge and said those words, I knew what I had to do. Six months later, I was on my way to London to kick off two months of travel across major cities in Europe with a suitcase and a backpack full of two laptops (not ideal, but we'll cover the two laptops later, I'm sure). For the first time, those two wolves felt like one, and my life would never be the same.

My life has changed a lot since that trip in Spring of 2023, but a few fundamental things have stayed the same: I still work remote, and I still love to go places. So come along — I'll share some of my favorite stories, a few of my traditions, and maybe even some tips along the way.