SEEKING MOSTLY QUESTIONS & ONLY SOMETIMES ANSWERS
Today is the oldest I’ve ever been and the youngest I’ll ever be.
B. 1990’s
ANHUI, CHINA
CHILDHOOD | 2000’s
MIDWEST, USA
ADOLESCENCE | AGE 10-19ish
USA | ASIA | EUROPE
EARLY 20’s
FRANCE | AUSTRALIA | WEST COAST, USA
Destined to be a 90’s kid (aka ~ a millennial). Born somewhere in the Anhui province of China. Birthplace unknown. Biological parents unknown. First year of life was spent in an orphanage before being adopted.
Grew up in a typical Midwest-US suburban city and became a product of an average public school. This is when I learned to use words like: bubbler (instead of “water fountain”), jeet? (instead of “did you eat?”), uffda (to express disbelief), and of course jeez/jeez louise (the polite way to express frustration of course).
Ahh yes, the formative teenage years…where parents get divorced and lemonade stands & babysitting for cash turns into working at restaurants & the grocery store for paychecks. A teenage workaholic is born with a fever for creative entrepreneurship. These were the years spent saving $$$ like crazy and dropping out of public high school to finish and get my diploma online instead; I graduated early. (Why? Because there are new places to go, people to meet, delicious foods to eat, and absolutely no time to waste.)
Study abroad in Paris, France on scholarship for a school year (& side quest to neighboring countries like the UK, the Netherlands and Morocco)
WWOOF/Volunteer on a working-holiday visa in Australia for a year (& side quest to New Zealand because it’s right there!)
Return to the US—reverse-culture-shock ensues (packs up car and moves “out west” on hopes, prayers and solid savings)
*during these years ~ no college debt/rarely paying rent. living out of two carry-on suitcases. working & saving whilst traveling & playing.
UNCHARTED TERRITORY [ uhn-chahr-tid ter-i-tawr-ee ]
AN UNFAMILIAR AREA OR SITUATION, ESPECIALLY ONE THAT HAS OR SEEMS TO HAVE NO MAPS OR GUIDELINES
Infinite timelines exist—but this is the one I remember living once upon a time.
2014 - 2016
2014 | a journal entry reads: “Anna Uncharted” and nothing else
maybe what it means to be human is to live through endless States and cycles of AMNESIA. FORGETTING and remembering.
2016 | create a youtube channel and upload a travel video to remember a foreign (to me) place called Morocco
2017-2018
A time of battles between the head and the heart
“WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN’T SCARED?”
LOGIC & REASON and/or/vs INTUITION & GUT FEELINGS
2019
SUMMER | spend six weeks living out of a van in Canada
“WAIT, YOU CAN LIVE OUT OF A VAN?”
WINTER | buys a van
2020
COVID-19
“THESE PAINS YOU FEEL ARE MESSENGERS. LISTEN TO THEM.” ~ RUMI
Dad dies 6 weeks after terminal cancer diagnosis
2021-2022
2+ years out on the open road in a self-converted van
“IF NOT NOW, WHEN?”
2023
JAN - JUNE | “Anna Under Construction”
paciencia y fE
JULY | car-camping adventures begin
A NEW ERA BEGINS
LET’S NAVIGATE UNCERTAINTY & THE UNKNOWN TOGETHER
