It was December 2014 and I had just ended a very long, very unhealthy relationship and found myself needing space.
My hometown is the tiny kind, located in Indiana. The type of place where everyone knows your business and the small smoke-filled bars are the place to be on a Friday night. I was never particularly proud of where I was from, but I never even considered the fact that I could go somewhere else. My life at that point was tragically routine and boring. The most drama I had stemmed from my own relationship when I discovered that he'd been cheating on me for quite some time.
I'm not ashamed to admit that it was one of those co-dependent relationships- the kind where you both encourage each others bad habits and try to avoid planning for the future. Anyway, my self-confidence had pretty much disappeared after so many years of being scared to advance my life. One day I had an epiphany. It's like they say about addicts, you can't help them until they want to help themselves. Those close to me had for years tried to tell me that I could do better, but it wasn't until I realized it for myself that I felt like the blinders had been taken off and I could finally see where my life was headed. All of a sudden I had this undeniable urge to make the change right now, no procrastinating this time. So I did it. I ended it. I felt completely liberated, excited even.
This euphoric high led me to think about every aspect of my life. When I was young I always fantasized about being a photographer for National Geographic Magazine. I'm not sure when that dream faded but I quickly realized that I wanted to travel. Anywhere and everywhere.
So for the first time I started looking at international flights. I had no idea what to expect or where I wanted to go. I found a really cheap flight to Portugal and I realized that God was giving me a sign.
In college I chose to take a couple years of Portuguese, since it was similar to the Spanish I already learned in high school and it seemed exotic to me. I never thought I'd ever actually have to use it, yet here I am, choosing to go to Portugal because I couldn't think of an excuse not to.
My family was happy that I was finally free, yet they didn't quite know how to react to this whole international traveling thing. I didn't care. I was this new person who no longer cared what others thought. I was going to live my life my way. And I was going to Portugal... for 3 months.
