About Travel

With this website offering a dual function, I suppose it is necessary to put a second About page. Aside from running and coaching, I am currently also a world traveler. My journey to this situation has been scary, stressful, and rewarding. I will try to chronicle some of the story, so those of you who are here for the travel aspect of my life will be able to grasp the journey.

    It started really around December 2016- January 2017. I was well into the swing of things as a second year teacher at a fantastic private school in Mississippi called Benedict Day School. The students and staff there were so fantastic that it made my job almost too easy. I began to search for something that would challenge me as an educator. That led me to searching for overseas teaching positions. I haphazardly put out some applications to various jobs around the world. There wasn’t really a game plan, it was more so testing the waters. I had just finished my Master’s degree and I felt a sense of anything is possible with each application. To my surprise I had a decent amount of responses. Some led to interviews, others I declined, and just as many declined me. However, some of those interviews turned into second interviews, and one of which turned into a job offer. Something that was a fun game now became a legitimate possibility. At this point I had told very few if anyone of what I had been doing, but when a school in China offered me a position teaching World History and Coaching it became a burden on my conscience. After consulting some of my trusted friends for advice I knew I had to talk to my administrator at school. I told her I was in a hard pressed position, and I needed some time to think about it. I told the school in China to give me a few weeks to review the contract and think about the offer. As the day of decision narrowed in, I thought it best to stay at the school one more year to refine my skills as an educator, and to leave on a high note. (in hindsight this was one of the best choices of my life.) I told my administrator that the next school year would be my last, and at that moment the clock was ticking.

    As May transformed into summer, a new chapter of my life erupted, the Wolf Pack. It was not something that was planned or forced (okay maybe a little) but something that just happened. The camaraderie and friendship that became from that chance happening is cataloged in many of my stories and photos on the website. These people served as a community that pushed each other to success and helped each other during failures. Many doors were opened through this group of friends. However, as the good times rolled so did the summer months and those beginning the school year. 

    Early on I put out applications to schools in the U.S. and abroad. I had minor feedback, but I knew it was early in the hiring season so I decided to wait. The distraction of the Wolf Pack made this almost too easy. The bustling of the school did as well. I applied to over 100 jobs in over 30 countries in the course of the school year, many were long shots, but hey you have to at least try. I had interviews and saw contracts. One particularly funny interview happened when my friend was running a 12 hour race in Jackson. It was scheduled for the day of his race, and I had already told him I was going to help him run the race. I didn’t want to bother him with this fact because I knew he had a lot on his mind already, so in between his loops I was going to retreat to one of the many rooms in the church that served as the base camp. After running around 8 miles with him during a tornado warning I pounded some coffee, changed shirts (not shorts because no one sees your legs during a Skype interview), and turned on my hotspot. The job was for a school in Kuwait, and the interviewer described the country as America 2.0. I joke, but the offer was pretty nice. They really know how to throw in the extra incentives to make you take the bait. However, they would not yield on allowing me to sign a 1 year contract instead of a 2 year contract so I declined the offer and went and ran 18 more miles with my friend. This basically represents the entire search I had for an overseas teaching job, nothing I found quite fit the build of what I wanted. What did I want though?

    It hit me one day at Starbucks, I remember saying to myself, “I just beat the system.” When applying for overseas teaching jobs you have to go through a ton of second hand websites that post jobs, and I would always try a new website on my famous Sundays at Starbucks (the day I would spend hours at starbucks searching and applying to jobs). One Sunday I was looking at different ways to work/travel overseas and I happened upon this site called WorkAway.info. It is a website that allows people to post volunteer positions that they need filled, and in exchange they give you a place to stay and feed you. I was skeptical at first, but as I started doing random searches just to see how extensive of a network the website was, I quickly realized that it was a completely legitimate way to travel and see the world. It allowed freedom and flexibility at a low cost. I could spend one week, one month, or one year at a location. So I began searching and scanning and sending out requests. My only search criteria was one of geography, it had to be beautiful and it had to be close to the previous spot. 

    I was nervous and exited at the same time. I finally found a way to do what I wanted to do. The trouble now was actually planning and executing it. I built around the things that I knew: I wanted to go to Europe, geographically it is easiest to start in the West, I knew my return date (the Boston marathon), and that was about it. I had roughly 10 months to travel and nowhere particular to go. I love the mountains and I love the beach, so I found a place that had both, Catalonia. I found a host that looked friendly enough and sent a request. In a few days she affirmed that I would volunteer at her house and that she would pick me up from the train station in the nearby city, perfect. From there I plotted a course into the French Alps, to Croatia, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. (However, since then Croatia fell through and I will go from the French Alps to Athens, Greece.) I will have roughly 4 other places to go to after Egypt, but I have plenty of time to book them. With my course set I just needed to decide on a departure date. I browsed flights for a few days before I found a decent one that put me in Barcelona when I wanted to be there. I probably filled out my information 5 times before purchasing the ticket. I remember sitting there looking at the screen with my credit card information typed in, all I had to do was click “purchase.” I knew that until I clicked that button, technically everything could be undone, but at the moment I possessed a plane ticket, it would be my new reality.

    So I bought the stupid thing. From there things fell into place and sometimes out of place but who’s keeping track. I packed everything I thought I would need, went to New Orleans and caught a plane to Barcelona. From Barcelona I hopped on a train headed to Figueres, Spain. I did not have cellular service so I had to rely on my host to meet me at the scheduled time and place. Sure enough a minute after I walked out of the train station she comes pulling up with two other Workawayers. I spent 1 month there doing some great work that you can check out on my “Working in Fortia” post. From there I caught a “bla bla car” (it is a ride share website) to Grenoble, France. I spent a day in Grenoble before coming a little south to the country side. Here I am staying on a self-sufficient farm that runs on solar power and endless hours of work from Workawayers, but it is very rewarding. More to come on that. In 3 weeks I’ll head to Athens, Greece to help renovate and work a Hostel.