One weekend in June I realized I was given a chance to tour the arctic but then the reality of it still hadn’t hit me yet & everyone was freaking out & excited about me wining this trip and going to Arctic but I was still meh but when I was 2–3 weeks out from going in august I started getting excited for it but also then I realized oh snap I won’t have any internet or cell service for the whole trip (2 weeks) in my 6–7 years of being on social media & constantly being connected for last 10 or so years my family & friends were like how will you survive will you go through withdrawal cause I had never experienced such a disconnection before

The grass, scorched and scratchy stems pricked the skin on my legs as I sat in the African red dust. The children on either side of me were holding my hands, their eyes wide in fascination as they traced their fingers up and down the blue and purple veins in my wrist. They poked every freckle, pinched my fingernails.

“Welcome to the Vegas team Ashley. We’re excited to have you,” were the words that still resonate with me as I drove down i85 headed home. It was real. I was really moving from a state/city I adored to somewhere west of Texas… I mean, I’d been to Vegas before, pre 21 yrs of age (so basically pre-life) but only to Circus Circus, Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. Don’t get me wrong – it was OK…but nothing that I would have electively chosen. I’d also flown to Vegas for the interview less than a week prior to getting that call but flew back to Atlanta within 24 hours after interviewing and I didn’t even visit The Strip. “Awesome!” I heard my voice say… “I’ll see you in Las Vegas!”

Today I woke to a borderline strange feeling that I can only seem to relate to "homesickness". It's a funny thing, this feeling, especially because I have never truly felt as if I have had a home (spiritually and physically). In regard to this subject, most of my adult life has been a state of wandering to seek out place that may finally be THE place. The place I plant roots, the place I call home, the place I feel home. Last year proved to be the pinnacle of this wandering. Booking one way tickets, and taking in all of the textures and sounds around me. Is this home? Many different places that varied in people, weather, food, and culture. None of them felt like home. Now, this existential searching did not lie within the realm of the conscious, it very much operated from a primitive part of my core that was not yet explored or illuminated. Until today. The most revealing question I've really ever asked, "how can you be homesick for a place that you haven't found?"

Let me begin by saying that I'm not going to preach my Christian values or ideas in this story. This is merely how I learned to fish out in the ocean, or rather not to fish; on a nearly deserted island in Thailand? Sound interesting? Did I get a hook?

Home is so much greater than the place you were born in. It’s both the place where you were taken care of and the place that taught you to take care of yourself. Yet, when we’re asked the classic “Where’s home for you?” we immediately spell out our hometowns. This is only natural, as these places are usually also home to our parents, our grandparents, our dogs (or cats, I’m not here to judge) and our childhood friends. But if you’re someone who’s built a life somewhere else, you know deep down that this answer is no longer entirely true.

Sometimes things aren't always as they seem. Sometimes your gut tells you one thing and reality tells you another. It can be good to trust your gut, but some cases go against what you may think.

It Has Been Said That If You Are Not Correcting Your Course Frequently You Aren't Living Life To Its Fullest...

After moving half-way around the world to the small town in the UK for my master’s programme, I had convinced myself and thought that every second of it would be a new adventure without any sort of effort on my part.

Entry 1: Mr Fee - The Flash.

I’ve always loved the saying “With great risk comes great reward,” because I fully believe it to be true. You’ve got to make sacrifices to live the life you want, to get the life you want, or to keep the life you want. These sacrifices don’t have to be huge or life-altering, but they do have to prove to the universe that you’re willing to give up a few things for even greater things.