Happy Independence Day

As an Aussie millennial, the 4th of July actually reminds me of Aliens & Will Smith haha! This was the original reference I had. I remember watching that movie so many times.

Happy 4th July. I have a lot of fond memories of how I got integrated into the US & how it’s been a part of my journey, even though I’ve not properly lived there for a long time, a lot of the experiences & people I met guided me to this life I have now, and I don’t believe that without these encounters it would have been the same. 

My 1st interaction happened at Apple. There was this transfer girl at our store from California - Brittany. She was one of the most down to earth people I had ever met. She rocked brown boots with her wild untamed hair and we were complete opposites. However being the social leader in those days meant that it was under obligation that I wrangled all the troops out to beers after work.

Admittedly I was a little bit of a time bully back then, I would not take no for an answer, I sometimes managed to get the managers to join us for drinks, and we all just had such great times catching up after work. I loved every moment of that. I miss everyone from then.

I would get the most introverted back of house out, there were about 300 of us so I felt it my responsibility to ensure everyone had the chance to connect outside of the workplace & cultivate the team culture that we all so loved. Really - everyone hired during that time was such an interesting person. Especially Brittany. :) 

I remember this one night, we roll up to pick her up from hers (reluctantly) and she pokes her head into the open front seat window to look down at what shoes I’m wearing - heels. “Nooooooo” She cries. She knew that that didn’t just mean 1 beer. Haha. I barely own any heels now haha - how things have changed. 

One night, we somehow ended up back at her place & decided to just book tickets to Thailand because why not. Little did we know that that was the start of a very long time friendship. Let me break what that looks like that down into what I can recall (wont be 100% accurate): 

2011 - Thailand & Cambodia together

2012 - Laos, Vietnam & Thailand again. She left Melbourne? But has swum in the Yarra haha (had to drop that in).

2013 - I visited her in California as she moved to San Francisco because she got into Berkley. We did a roadtrip across Utah, Arizona, Grand Canyon. I drove on the right side of the road & tried Four Lokos during 4th July!

2015 - (I was in Central America) but visited San Diego for a month before flying back to Australia.

2017 - I moved to London, so we did a trip to Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro. (Forgot about this year)

2019 - We met up in Kosovo, North Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Romania, Bulgaria (Getting this wrong for sure)

2023 - I visited LA & we caught up a few times now :) 

That’s over a decade of an international friendship of catching up in different countries haha

She introduced me to the world of travel and with it kicked off this series of my freedom lifestyle. I couldn’t go back after that. And living in Australia just didn’t feel right anymore - I was envisioning much more. 

I had been exposed to the American culture of entrepreneurship too through my career beginning in Startups at General Assembly from New York. The combination of these 2 encouraged I figure out a way to live where I wanted doing what I wanted. So I did. 

I’m really grateful for the people I met and was inspired by during this journey. If you have a memory of these times and we’ve lost touch I’d invite you to send a DM and say hi again! It’s sometimes difficult to stay connected on socials with changes & usernames - so say hello! 

& Happy 4th of July!!!