update
Happy New Year!
As 2024 is now underway, I want to start off by wishing everyone a beautiful, healthy and happy year ahead!
I'm not into New Year's resolutions but I do take a moment at this time of year to reflect on where I am in life and where I really wanted to be, and to then think about ways to connect the two.
It's important to check in with ourselves from time to time. It's the only way for us to really know if we are living the life that we want to live. And if we're not, that's okay. We can make adjustments, alter course and hopefully, get closer and closer to that ideal path.
It's never easy. I'm personally all over the place. After 20+ years on the road, I tried to spend a year living in the US. I lasted only 7 months and now I'm back on the road, living out of my suitcase and looking at Lisbon as a potential home base.
I have no idea what the future holds. But what I do know is that what I'm doing right now feels right. It took some difficult decisions but I made the changes I needed to make to get on the path that suits me best at this point in life.
That's all we can do. And I genuinely wish that everyone has an opportunity to make whatever adjustments might be needed in order to live their most fulfilling life as well.
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I also want to thank you all for following along with this newsletter! As always, this newsletter remains an important part of my life and knowing that it's being read means so much to me.
And please keep the email replies coming as well! Communicating with so many of you, which allows me to learn about you and your life experiences, is a major reason I continue with these newsletters.
Thank you, thank you, thank you and I look forward to even more communication over the next year!
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On that note, I'd love to know how your 2023 came to an end? And how do you feel heading into 2024?
For me, 2023 ended with a trip to Morocco. Traveling with 9 friends, we spent 4 days in the coastal city of Agadir and 4 days in Marrakech. We passed our time strolling along the beach, hiking in the picturesqueParadise Valley, visiting the surfing town of Taghazout, riding in ahot air balloonat the foot of the Atlas Mountains, celebrating a friend's birthday, wandering the ancient markets, dancing at one of the coolest rooftop spots in Marrakech, strolling through gardens and eating a ton of wonderful food. It was an ideal way for me to end the year. And the sense of friendship that pervaded everything we did was unsurprisingly far more important than the destination and activities themselves.
In fact, this trip represented the magic of travel for me. Ten people of five different nationalities, all doing our own thing in life, all of us living outside of our home countries, traveling often and seeking a community to be a part of despite our haphazard and random lifestyles.
Being a full time traveler and still having a community of friends is something I never imagined possible when I first started my travels!
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Upcoming travels: Mauritania, Senegal and The Gambia over the next 2.5 weeks.
