A bit of an Introduction

Hello! My name is Rachael. I was born and raised mostly in Seattle, Washington (having lived in Oregon for university, and studied abroad in Northern Italy, Peru, and Morocco before). I spent the past 1.5-2 years living and working in Seattle with two goals; to pay off all my student debt, and save money to travel the world. I just quit my job at the end of April and this past weekend marked one month of being on the road. 

I have been traveling on my own since I was 16 when I moved to Italy. Some of my interests include languages (Currently only speak English and Italian, but am working on Spanish, French, Mandarin and Arabic), environment, cultures, archaeology, global affairs, geography, history, food, dancing, hiking and the outdoors. I plan to travel for at least a year, but we’ll see where things take me. I was originally going to keep a journal, but I realized it would be far from convenient to lug around multiple journals with me on this kind of journey. Anyhow, the purpose of this blog is to document  and share my personal experiences and observations throughout my travels. If I get any information wrong or my interpretations of particular observations are false, please let me know. 

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If you know anything about who I am and where I’ve been these past two years, you’d know that this one has been a long time coming.

Two years ago I graduated from university in Oregon being told, “You’re free! You can do whatever you want!” I was eager for graduation as a result of these false statements. Immediately after graduating I went to work on an archaeology and sustainable development project in Northern Peru for the summer. Upon my return home from Peru I quickly realized “I had to become an adult”, and get that job. In reality, it felt like I couldn’t do what I wanted. I had large sums of student loans to pay off that would start accruing interest in a couple short months, and there was the societal pressure to simply work. 

After graduating and you don’t have a job, the looks and questions you get are, “What are you even doing with your life?” These sorts of reactions seriously made me question my self-worth. I spent less than a week job hunting and took one of the first offers I got. The work was tolerable and mediocre but I was passively still looking for something else. I switched jobs after less than two months at my first job. I found work doing GIS work and Project Coordinating in downtown Seattle. It was a good job, good location, good work culture, good pay and benefits, I couldn’t ask for more, right? 

I can’t iterate enough the sort of societal pressure I felt to work just to work. People ask about your work and your pay, not about your happiness. When I landed this job and people asked about it, they constantly reminded me of how lucky I am, how grateful I should be. In a way, I was lucky. I was lucky to have a “good” job, but that lifestyle wasn’t for me. Corporate America was not my goal. I’ve never been materialistic and living in the city felt suffocating. My job provided me with great benefits, some days I enjoyed work but most days I felt indifferent and drained. It provided me with the means to move into a beautiful newly renovated and modern apartment with a view in Seattle, it allowed me to be able to afford going out when I wanted. It gave me a “good” amount of paid time off for America’s standards, and despite me being able to take short vacations here and there, it was disheartening that I was unhappy for so much of my time. 40 hours minimum a week, every week of your life. This wasn’t how I wanted to spend my life.

It then became my goal to work towards what I had originally wanted to do coming out from undergrad, travel. I also wanted to take this time to explore new things as a 24 year old with few responsibilities (no car payment, no more student loans accruing interest, no mortgage, no pets, no children, etc.) and who, fortunately, is still able to have health insurance under my family until I turn 26. I don't feel I'll have another opportunity in life where I'll have so few commitments that give me the freedom to just leave and do what I want, when I want.

While I wasn't ever sure when or if I was actually going to be able to do this kind of trip, I began to put all my effort into my day job. Over the course of the 1.5 years I was there, I did well and got raises. I started a second job working at a restaurant in the evenings, and at one point I worked a third job (working 7 days a week at this point) also doing some map work on the weekends. My life in Seattle was restless. I worked 50-70 hours a week depending on the season and how busy my restaurant was. In addition to my work I tried to maintain things that were important to me; my relationships, my fitness/health, my interests in global affairs, volunteering, languages (I took Arabic classes), and so on. After less than two years of this I managed to pay off all my student debt, and save enough to travel for two or three years, though I’m not sure if I’ll actually travel for that long, I’m really open to anything as it comes up. 

(On a side note: When the moment came that I realized doing a trip like this could become reality and that I had to put in my notice at work, surprisingly, I had an incredibly difficult time leaving. I gave more than six weeks notice and I nearly cried when I put in my notice. I had not realized how much my job had taught me, how much I'd grown as an individual,  and how much I appreciated the relationships I formed with colleagues. I felt some sort of attachment and I also knew how lucky I was to have such a great first job. While travel has always been a dream, simply quitting was not so easy!)

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I’ve traveled a lot in my 24 years; though until this past December I had never really “backpacked”. We moved from place to place each day in Mexico for about two weeks. It was exhausting. I also found it difficult to engage with locals and practice/learn some of the language. I’d never experienced this kind of fatigue because none of my travels were like this. In Italy, I lived there for a year and lived with my host family, went to school, had a home, community, and life there. The relationships I formed there I would consider friends and family for life. 

In Morocco I lived on campus with my roommate (Moroccan), had a space that was mine, a life, and community. Studying archaeology has also brought me around the world (several times in Peru). Each time I was assigned a project, and I got to live and work somewhere for at least a month at a time. This kind of travel has really stuck with me. From my first time in Peru working on an archaeological project in a small village (that no one would know the name of, probably not even most Peruvians) in the high Andes with less than 300 people, I can’t remember a time where I’ve ever felt happier. Coming back to the States people asked me, “Did you see Macchu Picchu!?” And after hearing answer responded with disbelief and disappointment, “Well then what did you EVEN do???” That makes me laugh. 

You could go take pictures with as many monuments around the world as you want, but how much of just being there and present, did you experience? In my 6 weeks of that project in Peru, I hardly left that village. We had running water once a week, we had no internet, no phone service (we went to the city 3-4 hours away once in the middle of the project to load up on water supplies), but we had each other’s company. We worked hard in the day, the sun went down, and every night the people in the village would make us a dinner, hangout with us, and dancing always took place. I got to see the Milky Way with my bare eyes every night. I’ve never felt more at peace than I did when I was up there. That experience also reminded me of the importance of connecting with people, wherever I go.

As I travel, I am always reminded of the power of people. That sounds cheesy, but it really is a small world and we are all interconnected. I've made friends from all around the world and would welcome them into my home as I know they would. For this trip, while I'm excited to try new foods and have new experiences, for me, lessons from people different from oneself are probably the most important things I can take home with me from my travels.  

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These kinds of immersive experiences are what I am hoping to replicate more or less throughout this trip. Establishing myself and a sense of community and routine wherever I go.