What’s Next?

Well…that’s a wrap, yall. My post about Iceland marked the end of my trip recaps. From Reykjavik, I had a layover in New York City, and then I boarded a plane back to New Orleans to figure out what the heck to do with my life. Enter this blog. I started it because I was really struggling with the readjustment and reverse culture shock, and something needed to give.

(source)

I have had such a fun time writing this blog so far. I am very against social media and don’t use it, so this blog has been the only way for me to share my trip photos and stories with friends who don’t live near me. Each time I write a post, I get to relive a time from the best three months of my life thus far. And that is such a treat. But now that I’m finished recapping my trip, what’s next?

I obviously have no plans to grow this blog into a full blown travel blog that can give me a source of income. I know nothing about photography, blogging, coding, SEO, and all of the other technical things that come along with running and growing a blog. Like I said above, I don’t have social media, and in today’s world, that means that there’s really not a way for me to grow a readership. I know for sure that three of my friends are faithful readers (hi Paige, Channing, and Megan!), but I don’t know if anyone else reads this.

(source)

If I were to keep blogging, what would I write about? I don’t have any travel plans coming up in the near future. I hope to do a travel nurse assignment starting in March and then go on another long term backpacking trip, but that isn’t 100% yet and is still a ways off. My life in New Orleans is pretty straightforward, if not boring: I work as registered nurse in a psychiatric ER, watch Netflix, hang out with my family, and go out with friends. I don’t really have the writing skills to review nola’s restaurants and bars that I go to. I mean, I don’t know how many ways I can say “The food was amazing” or “This bar has $2 mixed drinks, wine, and champagne on Tuesdays, what else do you need in life?” (If I have any New Orleans people reading, I’m talking about The Prytania Bar).

Although the worst of it is hopefully behind me, I have struggled with serious depression and anxiety for around 8 years. I have a lot to say about this, but I don’t know how much I want to write about my experiences with it on the Internet. I did get a little into with this post and this one, but I’m not sure how much deeper I want to go with it on the world wide web. So yeah…all of that to say, I have no clue what to write about if I were to keep up with the blog going forward.

(source)

Honestly, I’m feeling a little restless being back at home. The wanderlust is hitting me big time. Most of my days are spent daydreaming about my next trip and reading travel blogs to get inspiration and information. I do know that I want to start a doctoral program in 2017 to become a nurse practitioner, and that means that I only have 2016 to do another long term backpacking trip to see and do as much as I can before I start a program of this intensity. I’m feeling the pressure of that for sure. In preparation, I am attempting to save money and narrow down where I want to go. As of now, the plan is…

2 months in South America: Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. In Argentina and Brazil, I only plan to spend time in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janiero as trying to do anything more than that will be biting off more than I can chew.

2 months in Africa and the Middle East: Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Dubai, Kenya, and Tanzania. I would also love to go back to Egypt.

2 months in India: I plan to use this itinerary for inspiration

1 month in Australia and New Zealand 

It’s a lot, no doubt, but 8 months is a lot of time. I think it’ll be a great gap year before beginning school again. I’d also like to tack on 4-6 weeks in Southeast Asia to revisit the region that stole my heart this summer. We’ll see. If anyone wants to join me for any portion, please please email me! I’d love to have a travel buddy. I plan to once again stay in hostels, couchsurf, eat street food, and stick to a backpacker’s budget (around $25-$30/day) to be able to afford this.

I’m not sure when I’ll be writing again, but hopefully it will be soon as I think blogging is a good outlet for me. Maybe I’ll write about the upcoming trip and exactly which places I’m excited to visit. If you’ve been reading my little blog, I want to say thank you thank you thank you for listening to my ramblings. Until next time, happy travels!

(source)

What trips do you have coming up?! I’d love to hear about it!