how it all came about

At this moment i look around this two-toned wood-floored room and wonder how i came to be here; in this place, with these people, with this plan-without-a-plan. merely three weeks ago i was working as an after-school kindergarten teacher in irvine, california. i rented a room from two grandmas (neither of them my own) and happily drove around my 1991 pontiac grand am, affectionately known as 'betty'. my family lived 20 minutes to the south, my boyfriend lived 20 minutes to the north, and world-famous laguna beach lay 20 minutes to the west. life was good.

Except that it wasnt. i was bored. deathly bored. i realized soon after college that the world we live in, this huge ball of neverending adventure, culture, and the unknown, is ours for the taking. i could sit in irvine and be content merely paying my bills and slowly saving up for something in the future, or i could do something wild, something unexpected, something a little drastic. like buy a plane ticket to a random country, hope to get a job and somewhere to live, and then sell nearly everything i own and take off. and then just see what might happen next. so thats what i did. i opted for the risky, unknowing, "courageous" path (more on the courageous bit later). i bought a ticket to new zealand. i applied for a visa. i posted my resume on various online employment sites. i had some garage sales, made some trips to thrift stores, and gave things away to friends. i quit my job, told the boyfriend we'd keep in touch, and packed two bags.

Worst case scenario, id get to auckland and have to live in a hostel for a week or two. i could find a job in a cafe or supermarket, search gumtree (the local craigslist) for some free local activities, and then build from there. id be arriving the first day of spring, just in time to miss california's fall --- a fun time of year but something i've already done 25 times.

Everybody asks; 'so why new zealand?" the answer is pretty logical. they speak english, it's safe (when was the last time you heard of shooting sprees or serial killers or sex trafficking in kiwiland?), it's a very outdoorsy and active country, and I can have 3 summers in a row. what have i got to lose?