i am not the word

Can you ever really write an ‘About Me‘ section on a website and truly write enough for a person to get to know you? The thing about me is I am a plethora of different things. A writer, photographer, and cancer survivor are just a few of those things.

I am a partner. I am a traveller. I am a daughter. A sister. A friend. I am an adventurer. I am a wanderer. I am an introverted extrovert. Or is it an extroverted introvert?

I am lover of photography, capturing moments along my travels enriches the experience of travel for me. I am a lover of writing, whether it be poetry, blog posts or books. I enjoy being able to share my experiences through writing and photography, with those willing to look and read.

I am a person who thrives on change. After living in Australia to attend Teacher’s College, not to sound cliche, but I caught the ‘travel bug’ and I knew it would be hard for me to stay in one place long. Not long after that I left Canada again, to teach in Thailand. Which was the most eye opening experience of my life. After returning from Thailand, I attempted to stay in Ontario, Canada, and obtain a teaching position there, but it was difficult. After realizing that the sedentary life was not for me, I ran away to the other side of the country; Whitehorse, Yukon. After getting all that I needed out of that journey, I moved on to Majuro, Marshall Islands. And to Niamey, Niger, not long after. I spent three years living in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam, and then moved to Quito, Ecuador, where I spent a year and a half.

It was in Quito that I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and underwent chemotherapy for 6 cycles. I was in remission after 4. I then travelled back to Canada and had an autologous stem cell transplant in July 2021. And now I am living in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where I fulfilled my goal of teaching in every continent (minus Antarctica) that I set when I first became a teacher.

Some use the word wanderer. Some use the word nomad. Hell, I have even been called a transient. But I had chosen the word solivagant. I once preferred to do my wandering alone. You meet the most fascinating people that way. In fact, I met my current partner doing just that. So I may not be the solo traveler I once was, having a partner who shares the same interest in living a life of traveling and teaching, I am still a solivagant at heart. But it was the reason for a recent blog name change, or one of the reasons. As the words we describe ourselves with can often change, or often be hard to live up to. So I’ve chosen to ‘not be the word’, if you will. I am just me.