About

My name is Caryn and it is my dream to see the world and live life entirely on my own terms.

I have been to a total of 5 countries so far, and I am about to knock off two more this summer. Bringing my total number of countries I will have visited to 7! This journey initially started the summer of my freshman year of college, I was 18 years old, hungry for adventure, and desperate to go anywhere besides here. My boyfriend, Zakary and I had previously looked into the study abroad program with our university FSU.

I remember standing next to Zakary’s desk and looking at how much money the study abroad program would cost, and my heart sank: bummer. It was more than either of us could handle and on top of that we would have to take classes simultaneously: double bummer.

The dream slowly started to seem too out of reach.

Zakary looked at me and said “Why don’t we just save up as much money as we can until the end of the school year and go for two weeks with what money we can come up with!” Suddenly the dream didn’t seem like only a dream anymore. We started to get excited and tell everyone we knew that we were going to plan a trip to Europe that following summer.

We were both 18, with a dream to live and explore, and nothing could stand in the way of that dream.

Sidenote:

Through The Experience of Disappointment I Learned 2 Things:

1. The only thing keeping you from achieving a desire is yourself: If you allow yourself to want it, eat, breath and sleep that idea. You will achieve it.
2. Manifesting is so incredibly powerful: we started to talk and talk, and talk even more about where we would go, what we wanted to see, how long we wanted to go… and that pure manifestation started to produce more than what we could have ever expected.

ANYWAYS!!!

It was our first break back home and we had, so far, told everyone and their MOM about how we were planning on going to Europe that summer. We were asking family members (who had already traveled a bit throughout their own life) on where they thought we should go, what to pack, and what to see.

I will never forget, Christmas break, we had an idea to make some of our family and friends a box of Christmas cookies as gifts since we were both extremely broke college students.

We went from house to house handing them out, of course we wore fun Santa hats hehe.

We finally made it to Zakary’s grandparents, and what was originally going to be a quick visit, turned into an hour of talking about their travels throughout Europe, and a yap session of us telling them how excited we were about traveling that summer!!

I think they saw themselves in us a bit.

By the time we were done chatting, a check was handed to us, and with it, an unexpected push to extend our travels beyond the original two weeks that we could afford. Our trip had doubled within an hour! I remember getting in the car afterward, the joy still fresh on our faces. We had giant smiles, a moment of stunned silence, and then an outburst of contagious laughter we couldn’t hold back.

We got into the car, looked at each other, and asked, “Did that really just happen?” The shock, the excitement… It was indescribable. I guess it must be the feeling gamblers feel when they hit the jackpot!

And what started as a distant daydream began to take shape: flight searches, itinerary drafts, hotel bookings. It felt surreal. But sure enough, by the time summer rolled around, we were on a plane with backpacks, a huge suitcase, and wide eyes ready to take it all in. That was the beginning of something bigger than just a trip — it was the start of a lifelong love for travel, for freedom, and for building a life entirely ours.

Fast forward to now, we are currently planning our next trip, and I can’t wait to take you all along for the ride!

So Join Me On My Journey

This is only the beginning. This life of mine is full of fun, excitement, and of course a TON of stress. But who said stress had to only be a bad thing haha. I look forward to seeing what this journey turns into. This blog is my way of documenting the ride, showing the full unfiltered growth, stories, and laughter, and even a little bit of chaos!!

I hope this reminds you that it’s never too late to chase your dreams, no matter how crazy or unrealistic they are. It is worth it.

See you guys in the next one!

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Sincerely,

Caryn Coker