The Night That Started It All

This is the night that started everything – my journey to becoming a freediving instructor, living in Thailand, and learning to take a leap of faith while trusting my gut.

As you may have read by now (if not, more here!), my original ‘plan’ was to hit the typical backpacker route along Southeast Asia, adventuring through countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. Okay, so it definitely wasn’t the most original post-graduation trip of all time, but it was my first attempt at doing a big-time solo trip around the globe. 

Well, it was supposed to be. Clearly, the rest of the trip never happened, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

On the night that this picture was taken, I was supposed to be catching a ferry bright and early at 6 am and then a flight to Bangkok. My decision to enjoy a few alcoholic beverages the previous night may be questionable to some, ridiculed by others, and ingenious to a small percentage. I tend to side with the ‘ingenious’ verdict. 

After a heart to heart with one of the divers who had fully convinced me that I belonged nowhere else on this planet other than Koh Tao, liquid courage took over and turned off all of my alarms for the morning. 

The ferry set sail and my plane headed to Chang Mai, but my backpack and I remained on the island which had already managed to capture a part of my soul in just a few short days. My plan was to extend my stay only for a few days after my missed flight. Unsurprisingly, it turned into the rest of the year, and then into half of 2020.

I couldn’t tell you exactly what it was that made me turn off my alarms that night. Maybe it was the liquid courage, maybe just being young and naive, or maybe it was even the universe trying to tell me something. I will never know definitively, but am forever thankful. Sometimes the best plans are the ones you never made.