Hi, my name is Josie and travel is my oxygen!
Growing up overseas as a military brat I caught the traveling bug early on. My family moved from place to place about every four years or less and having a passport was a necessity in life – flying internationally was required not only for vacations but for everyday life, including sports competitions!
Living in third world countries, I learned that the conveniences we take for granted in the USA are not ways of life in other countries – living in the Philippines I often did my homework by candlelight due to frequent power outages and we had 4 hour commutes just to travel 1 mile by car because of the horrendous traffic! I lived through extreme flooding, typhoons, volcanic eruptions and coup d’etats – all before I was in high school! Norms of life included bathing in water stored in large trash cans, drinking soda from plastic bags and listening to bootleg Madonna tapes 6 months past their release date, not to mention the fact that I was always a minority in the population. Much of this sounds unusual, but….was I happy? Yes!!
The best part of growing up overseas was learning to appreciate what I had – less WAS more and things are not always perfectly comfortable. Just because you can’t speak the language and time runs more slowly doesn’t make a place any less beautiful or wonderful. In fact, places where less is more feel more like home to me than five star hotels and perfect restaurants. I’ve had some of the most amazing experiences of my life by stepping outside of my comfort zone and just saying ‘yes’ to things that might appear a bit ‘sketchy’ at first glance to most people.
So, at 48 years of age, in true ‘Outlaw fashion,’ I’m taking another big leap of faith and traveling the globe solo with a backpack for 3 months, hoping to cross off at least 8 countries on my list – join me in my journey and see where my Outlaw travels take me!