This past year was like taking one long and concentrated look in the mirror. The first three months were spent packing up and getting rid of 95% of our belongings. We hit the road April 3 with just two backpacks and a computer bag for a trip around the world. It was filled with incredible experiences, but I’m most grateful for the chance to push myself outside of my comfort zone and learn more about what I can handle. There were just a few small obstacles and hurdles while on the road and each one was a learning experience.

I thought I’d recap the year by sharing a few things I learned about myself in the last 12 months. Some are silly and some have made me really change up some priorities.

  1. Humidity is not my favorite kind of climate. We spent the summer in SE Asia. I learned to be extremely careful when selecting our daily activities because the constant sweating and heat would really put a damper on my mood. The one good thing was the effect it had on my skin though.
  2. Desert climates are my favorites. I would need so much water and lotion, but I could live in the desert and love it.
  3. Pizza is good in every country.
  4. Laos is my favorite Asian country that we visited and it was not the country I expected to love the most.
  5. Traveling by train is my favorite. We used the train for three months in Europe and fell in love. I wish the US would offer more train travel options because it’s so much better for the planet than flying.
  6. I owned WAY TOO MANY clothes before leaving on this trip. After spending eight months with just a backpack of my items, I realized that having too much before made my life harder and more complicated.
  7. People don’t hate Americans like I thought they would. We definitely had a few dicey moments, but most people just wanted to know our thoughts on the current leader and smaller details about life there. The question that stands out for me the most was about guns. A man in Bali asked us why everyone in our country owns guns. He couldn’t imagine a place where even the police had guns. I hate that our country is known in small villages in Bali for loving guns.
  8. Not all fruit is created equal. Dragonfruit is superior to all other kinds.
  9. My ideal morning doesn’t change with my geographical location. Coffee, a book, comfortable seat and a quiet sunrise work for me everywhere. If there are pancakes involved, you could call it perfect.
  10. I take a lot of pictures. My goal for January is to try and organize the photos from this past year and delete the duplicates.
  11. Vacations with friends are the best kind. Being able to explore someplace new and have a few days of quality time together is indescribable. We were lucky enough to have a few chances to do that this year and I am so grateful for those memories.
  12. Line drying clothes is great and you will rarely find driers outside the United States.
  13. I have serious regrets about not studying French harder in high school and college. While traveling, it was obvious that most of the world knows at least two languages and I wish I could have been in that club. It inspired me to start studying again.
  14. Cats are just as awesome as dogs. I feel bad for not giving them a chance. They were everywhere on our travels and I love them now.
  15. Religion is one of the most interesting topics to learn about. Especially since I’m not religious at all.
  16. Cheap wine in Europe is an absolute delight and so are the Christmas markets.
  17. Makeup is definitely a luxury item and the only thing that made the cut for our trip was one eye liner pencil and one tube of mascara. I barely used them and it was pretty wonderful.
  18. I still hate having my picture taken. I forced myself to do it a few times on this trip, but it was pretty rare.
  19. Convenience is the cause for a lot of the wasteful things I do in life. My goals for this year are to cut down on the convenience things like processed foods, extra packaging for “on the go” items, shopping big box stores instead of farmer’s markets and small local shops.

I’m excited for the new year. I bought a new paper planner for 2020 after not using one last year. Being able to write things out makes me so happy. I’ve got some goal setting to do and lots of planning for the next leg of our trip. We will be hitting the road to do some exploring in the US in February and I am so excited to look at our options.

If you are interested in seeing a recap of the countries we visited this year, you can find a year recap on our travel blog here.

Happy 2020.