So there I am, 16 years old, hiding in the hotel bathroom while sobbing on the phone and spilling my teenage woes to my dad.
And that’s when he hit me with my favorite advice from him:
The Advice
“Shannon, it’s just money. It’s not worth you being in a miserable situation, I’ll buy you a ticket and you can come home tonight.”
 
 
The Back-Story
My dad isn’t one of those pageant parents, so when I told him I wanted to travel out of the state for an Irish dance competition (the Southern Regionals – …

I feel like a cheater in the RTW traveler club. You see, members of the RTW traveler club share some key qualities: most save up over the course of several years, they quit their jobs, and they (mostly, aside from travel blogging) single-mindedly backpack the world.
I didn’t do that. Not any of it actually.
I worked steadily from the road my entire RTW trip.
My Travel-Enabling Job
So here’s my confession to you: I perform freelance SEO (search engine optimization) work and I worked from the road every single week of my trip …

Quite a few friends and blog readers have asked for a follow up post about the ten day Vipassana Meditation course that I took in Nepal…the journal chronicling my ten day Vipassana course was very raw and there was no room for reflection at the time…
Vipassana Meditation in Nepal
I dubbed my time in Vipassana meditation as my “ten day stint in solitary confinement”- it’s how it felt at the time, and, in jest, I do still think of this intense mediation course as one of my wackier decisions. But now, …

“So, when do you head out again, where are you going next?”
And that is the ten million dollar question my friends.
And the truth?
I don’t know.
I have a conundrum. I’m living at my parents’ house right now as I readjust to the US and plot out my future travels and drag out the last of my Ireland posts for you. A month ago my plan was simple, come home, see family and friends, stay through Christmas and head out to South America in January.
And this is still, perhaps, the leading …

I’ve been back from my around the world trip for a full month now. More than a month, actually – about six weeks. It’s been an incredibly strange sensation, coming home after all of that time away from all of the people I love – for nearly half of the trip I traveled solo.
I think it would be terribly cliché for me to talk about all of the intensely touchy-feely things that I learned about myself over the past year – I did learn a lot, it would have been …

Holy cannoli guys I’m getting onto an airplane in just three hours that will land on US soil eight hours later.
Weird.
I went out with a bang and had a really lovely last day in Dublin yesterday – I am sure that once I am back I will have some very lovely reflective posts for you. Right now though, it’s hard to even wrap my head around the fact that I will be back home tomorrow night (late!). Ahh my bed, so soft and comfy.
I went cheap and have two layovers …

I have just six more days left before this trip around the world is all over. It’s hard to believe that 11 months have flown by so quickly…and yet at the same time, it really does feel like a whole lot has happened. All of the backpackers I meet ask me how it feels to be ending this trip.
I feel conflicted. I really cannot wait to see my family, my niece and nephews and all of my friends. But I have a very clear lifestyle and method of travel and …

I am not on vacation.
This little statement is one of the things that some people I meet just don’t get. Take the women just yesterday; I got an absolutely hideously long lecture from an older traveler about bringing my laptop on vacation and plugging into the internet when I should be out hiking, taking in the fresh air, disconnecting from technology, blah, blah, blah, yada, yada yada.
My simple answer to this busybody who felt the need to lecture me for ten minutes?
I am not on vacation.
One of the key differences …