Bringing in the New Year and closing out 2018 — Part 1
Happy New Year! As we bring in the new year and close out 2018, I look back on it thinking that this was the most amazing and inspiring year of my life; and it was because of the people that I spent it with.
The community of travelers, creators and doers that I’m now a part of has changed my life completely. People that are taking action and want to create change and positivity in the world. People that want to travel together, have fun together, build businesses together, and just grow as people.
I started out 2018 in New York City, working out of my first ever creator studio in Brooklyn called Bushwick Photo Studio. I can’t even describe the feeling of having a physical space that is your own to work from and create things. At the beginning of 2018, I was entering the second month of my first 90 day content creation challenge on Medium. This post is the start of my second 90 day challenge.
Those posts were the start of such an incredible year. Within just a month of starting that journey, I had grown from 0 to 25,000 views and was even asked to publish one of my articles about drones in The Next Web. That first challenge was the start to such an incredible year.
I spent the next few months in New York City working on collaborations with people and building software. We had our first creator day at Bushwick Photo Studio which was a great success and just a really fun day.
I took a break from NYC for a bit to fly to Los Angeles for the Traveling Good kickoff party which changed everything for me. I learned about how BC and Perry wanted to change the world and was introduced to Yes Theory and the idea of purposely seeking discomfort.
Back in New York City, Marie Fill and I drove out to The Wine Library to meet Gary V, which was the start of the year of firsts. Marie and I only got to meet Gary for about 20 seconds, but I was so impressed by how humble and kind he was in those 20 seconds.
I know Gary can be hard to take sometimes, but in those 20 seconds I could tell that’s the real Gary, he’s kind and just wants to help the world. And he’s succeeding on that journey. I took that experience into my own life to try my hardest to be kind and welcoming to each and every person I meet.
Then came April and I headed off to Europe on a Norwegian Airlines airplane with Marie Fill. It was her first time leaving the country and we started with a bumpy road at the airport, too much luggage! We were in the middle of the terminal at JFK shifting around stuff so they would let her check-in, but that was the start of an epic journey.
We had a long layover in Oslo and got to explore the city before heading off to Malaga, Spain. Before this trip, I had marginal appreciation for Spain, but never really loved it. But I loved Malaga! It was a great place to start off our Nomad Cruise 6 adventure, and that trip definitely didn’t disappoint.
I met so many new friends on that journey, like Julia Shem, Louis Louise Dean, Tobias Röhrl, Gustav Andersson and Courtney McCullough. We explored these incredible new places like Malta and Olympia. I almost got in trouble for flying my drone over ancient ruins, then we ended up in a city I never really thought of exploring, but absolutely loved! Athens! Those days in Athens were super special and then a small group of us headed off to Mykonos where I celebrated my 33rd birthday with a few too many margaritas!
After Mykonos we headed off to Santorini to meet up with the rest of the Nomad Cruise community. We spent the next week co-living and co-working together, sunset happy hours in Thira and Oia, riding 4-wheelers around the island, exploring lost cities, doing two-highs on volcanos, and having morning coffee with friends in Kamari Beach.
Then I flew off to Albania where Nikki Bartol and Stephanie Carolina and I had an epic apartment in a run down building in Tirana for a week.
It was a great week of de-compressing, getting work done, cooking meals, and partying at a crazy Albanian club.
I headed off by bus to Montenegro next to meet up with Daniele Kohn where we explored Kotor and spent mornings hiking mountains, having gelato, almost losing my drone, and having fantastic coffee.
Next up was Dubrovnik where I once again almost lost my drone and found hidden cafes in the walls. We had to carry our bags up what felt like the side of a mountain and explored that beautiful Croatian town before I headed off to Split too meet up with the crew for the first Active Workation sailing retreat with Marcella Korver.
That trip gave me so much confidence and new ideas from all of you. I learned more about creating community and what people want on trips like these. I learned how to make the next one better and Marcella and I created an amazing community of people that continue to meet up all over the world. The WhatsApp group that I continue to see messages pop up on every few days is probably the best thing I have ever seen be created, and I thank many of you all for being here in this group.
I then flew from Croatia to Hawaii to spend a week on the beautiful island of Oahu, literally the other side of the planet. I got to see Pearl Harbor, I hiked 10 miles and almost got lost trying to find a waterfall in the mountains, and had fish tacos on the North Shore.
And this was all just the start of such an epic year! I then flew back to NYC to spend the summer with friends and learning more about the Peace Boat from Emilie McGlone. Marie and I volunteered as photographers where I saw astronauts talking about how to save the planet and how his home was not Texas, his home was planet Earth! And I visited the UN and heard youth ambassadors share their experience on the Peace Boat with UN ambassadors.
I’m going to end this first post here, expect part 2 coming soon. But this past year would not have been possible without each and every one of you! Thank you for making my year and being a part of my dream life, and inspiring others to live theirs.
For the next 90 days, several members of my group Those That Inspire will be posting every day for 90 days. If you want to join in on the journey, please comment below and I’ll send you more information!
