Since I've been gone, I...

• ... quit my 9-to-5 desk job
• ... packed up my life in Nashville and moved all my stuff into my parent's house in Ohio
• ... joined a cruise ship as a photographer
• ... sailed around Mexico and Alaska for 5 months
• ... met a handsome, tall, wonderful guy from The Netherlands
• ... fell in love
• ... left the cruise ship and moved to The Netherlands
• ... got a 9-to-5 desk job in The Netherlands

So, yeah. That was a hell of a year off, huh? Life throws you curve balls sometimes, I guess. You just gotta swing and hope for the best.

The ship life was demanding and exhausting, but also an experience I wouldn't trade for the world. I laughed, I lived, I loved. But for all the pros of the ship world, there are certainly also cons. I worked seven days a week, I got no sleep, and I had no personal life. But it was scary and it was crazy and I did it. And now my life is VASTLY different because of it.

For one, I am living in another country. On another continent. I want to talk a lot about living abroad more in the future, but right now I will say that if you feel the pull at all to study or live abroad and there is nothing holding you back from doing so, by all means -- do it! It's scary, but -- like anything that is scary -- it is worth it!

It wasn't as scary as it could've been in my case just because I knew I had my boyfriend here to help me, guide me and hold me when all the stress of moving and immigrating got to be too much. Again, I am planning to talk a lot more about Rolan here in the future, but suffice it to say that there was no doubt in my mind that moving to The Netherlands was the right choice for me.

So, here we are.