My Story

I always knew in my gut that I wanted to be free to live the life that I had always dreamed of living. But for some reason I got caught up in what society wanted me to be. In what made the most money. In what had the most attractive job title. But none of these things ultimately would make me happy.

Born and raised in Montpelier, Ohio, a small town in rural northwest Ohio, I struggled to find my place in the world. To realize who I was. After attending Ball State University, I landed a job on Wall Street in New York City and began working in Midtown Manhattan on September 10, 2001. Little did anyone know the events that would take place the next day and would change our lives forever. Seeing the smoke in the sky and ashes on people as they walked home that day with my own eyeballs was a somber introduction to the “real world”.

Investment banking and New York City wore me down. My struggle to figure out my career path led me to St. Petersburg, Florida, where I had a successful five year stint as a franchise consultant. But I missed my family who all still lived up in northwest Ohio and after obtaining my MBA from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), I landed a finance position with PepsiCo working for the Gatorade brand in Chicago, Illinois. After moving up through the organization, I landed a highly-coveted corporate strategy position back in New York at PepsiCo’s World Headquarters. I was thrilled, yet realized that I was still unfulfilled. Something more existed for me.

My eyes instantly flipped open early one morning and I stared directly up at the white ceiling softly illuminated by the city lights filtering into my New York City apartment. I leaned over to look at my phone and saw that it was 3am. After sixteen years of setting my alarm to head into an office building on Monday morning, that Monday was different. It was the day that I said enough was enough. No more 9-to-5. No more rat race. No more unnecessary meetings or conference calls.

I went into the office later that day and asked for a sabbatical. I quickly broke my two year lease and moved everything I owned into a storage unit. With one bag packed, I set out on a solo, nonstop journey that led me to the far reaches of the world.