Global Nomad

It took almost dying for me to finally start living my dream of global travel. In 2012, when my Vascular Surgeon told me I had suffered a traumatic abdominal aorta dissection and the mortality rate was between 50 and 75%, I was without words. I had fought for months to get a specialist to review my MRI films and investigate “intimal flap.” I kept getting the runaround and the message that those findings were “unremarkable.” So when someone finally revealed the truth of what I had suspected, and showed me my aorta which looked like a pie chart divided in thirds, rather than a complete circle, I didn’t know how to respond. I froze. For the next three days, I literally laid on my bed afraid to move, cough, laugh, or even breathe.

It was in that moment when I integrated the imminent reality of mortality and the finite number of days we are given. And it was in that moment that I decided to go to Paris, for the first time, after three decades of longing and dreaming of finally getting there some day.

That was it. I had decided and was going to make it happen. So I spent my 40th birthday, not knowing what lie ahead, but knowing that this one dream was going to come true… no matter what.

And so it began… my undeniable quest to live each one of my days in dream fulfillment, in pursuit of adventure, to the fullest extent of my ability.

Now it has become a lifestyle we are defining and designing for ourselves.

Here’s what I know to be true. Whether we articulate it or not, we all have a Plan A for our lives, the way we picture it will turn out. We strive and work and do everything we can to bring it to life and hope that it will all work out in our favor. What happens when Plan A doesn’t work out? What happens when life throws you curve balls or just throws you six feet in the air and changes everything? Then what?

I say, make a new plan. Call it what you will, but whatever you do, infuse it with every bit of wild imagination and unbridled adventure that you can. Then, go make it happen.