Growing up a military brat, I always held a fascination with travel, seeing the world and meeting new people. Even though I continued traveling as I got older, it never seemed to be enough time. It always felt like I was rushing to cram everything in when I visited places.

After attending the University of Southern California and getting a degree in film. Working in the film business didn’t always leave that much time for travel. I did the assistant thing for a few years, before deciding I needed to take my career by my own hands instead of expecting something so I started producing short films. Eventually with my twin sister and another partner I started a production/post-production company and also graduated to making feature films. For 5 years, that was my life, but during that time I took my first month long vacation. Originally, the trip started out as let’s go to London for the 2012 Olympics and quickly morphed into let’s go see Ireland and Scotland as well. We tagged on Wyoming at the end because it was a trip we were supposed to take the previous year and life got in the way. It was amazing and still a trip I look back on fondly. Plus, my twin sister and I didn’t kill each other.

That trip sparked a burning desire to travel for a longer period of time. Once the business ended and I found myself freelancing, I was in a better position to work for a few months, then take a month off and travel. Despite this, I started to become restless. I think staying some place for 18 years when you’ve grown up living a nomadic life, will do that to someone after a certain period. Don’t get me wrong; I’m a Cali girl. I love the sunshine, the friends that have now become family and my crazy 16-18 hour a day job as a producer/production manager, but I found I was falling more in love with traveling after every trip I took.

At the end of 2015, I found out about the opportunity to travel around the world for a year with a community of like-minded people and jumped at the chance. I thought to myself, ‘Isn’t this what I had been yearning for all along, but hadn’t articulated out loud?’ Once I was accepted into the program I sold or gave away everything I owned, because I didn’t want anything holding me back or tying me down from making the decision to travel longer or not return to LA right away. I left the program after 3 months, but I continued my travels. The rest they say … is history!

At this point, I’ve visited 31 countries, on 5 continents and seen more than half of the U.S. I also published my first travel book earlier this year: Greater Than a Tourist – Los Angeles California USA: 50 Travel Tips From A Local. In addition to planning to write more travel books, I’m also a board member of an organization called All Things Are Possible (www.atapinc.org). It is a program that mentors young girls and provides opportunities to see the world. The organization had its inaugural trip this summer. The founder and I took five girls to Colombia for 10 days.

I’m on a quest to continue to travel as frequently as possible and visit more countries than my twin sister, who’s currently beating me by 6 countries. I hope you enjoy my blog and I hope it makes you want to get out and see the world.

As a woman of color, my travel experience can differ from others and I’m hoping my travels and experiences will resonate with everyone, but I hope it will show anyone that it doesn’t matter who you are, the world is open to you and is waiting for you to step out of your comfort zone and go for an adventure.
I’m a storyteller. For years I’ve helped other people craft their stories and ideas and now … now I’m crafting some stories of my own, while adding to the list of countries I’ve visited.

Check out some of my previous travel writing at the travel blog I shared with my twin sister: www.wewandertogether.com