I’ve always been an inherently curious human — my mind and my heart naturally crave variety, new experiences, and adventure. I feel most fulfilled (and most like myself) when I’m absorbing newness with all of my five senses: expanding my mind, my heart, and my spirit simultaneously.

The more I’ve become aware of this, the more I’ve attempted to follow my natural curiosities, which has led to truly the most fascinating escapades all over the world. My curiosity has lit the way for me to experience swimming in Turkish baths in Budapest, rolling down lush green hills in a giant inflated orb in New Zealand, and soaking in the Dead Sea at the nude hippie beach while sipping the best chai tea I’ve ever had with naked Jordanian bedouins.

I’ve watched the sun rise from the top of a volcano in Indonesia, swam amongst the sparkly stars of bioluminescent plankton in Thailand, and searched for jaguars in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru. I’ve chased the northern lights in Iceland, climbed the towering cliffs of Norway’s gorgeous fjords, and participated in a Hindu prayer ceremony on the banks of the sacred Ganges River in India.

I consciously chose quite a few years ago to be the sovereign of my own life, which means I follow MY curiosities, not anyone else’s. I want to consciously live my life in such a way that I’m constantly learning and growing through exposure to new ideas, new ways of thinking, and new ways of being. I realized in my mid-twenties that I had the option to live a life that kept others comfortable (while I quietly died inside) or I could live MY LIFE.

My life is unconventional, and sometimes that’s hard. But it’s mine. And I’ve orchestrated and created and designed it so I can be exactly who I am deep at my core: I am a passionate fire that burns for constant expansion, the need to express, to be free. I love love, I feel deeply, and my need to experience the depth of newness is equal only to my need to eat food to stay alive.