Hi Friend,

Yes, I am joining the fleet of people blogging about their travels on the internet. Thank you for taking a minute to check this thing out! A little background on the format of this blog… it is meant to be read as a letter of sorts. As you might already know, I found a lot of joy in exchanging handwritten letters with my grandfather for many years, especially as I tried to maneuver that weird phase of life called adulthood (still a work in progress). I always signed off with a “Love, Marissa” and in his honor, I have decided to use it here as well.

I am planning on sharing with you the glamorous and not-so-glamorous sides of uprooting my life to explore more of this big world we live in. In March of this year, I fell into what felt like an annual rut at work and decided to take a much needed vacation from Seattle. The winter weather had been absolutely crazy; Seattle was actually hit with the most amount of snow it had seen since 1916 (for the month of February). Needless to say, I was ready to see the sun! Thailand came to mind because many of my friends from college had studied abroad there, and I was always a tiny bit jealous that I never pushed myself to explore the opportunity back then. But “today is today” as my grandmother always used to say, and I was lucky enough that my manager signed off on my vacation request. I immediately purchased the flights! At that point, I thought, “OK, two weeks in Thailand! I will come back refreshed and ready to get back to work.”

Well…. that didn’t quite pan out as envisioned. Instead of feeling refreshed and ready to dive back into the land of debits-and-credits, I experienced the exact opposite. I was very much NOT ready to get back to my excel spreadsheets. I was so far from being ready to return that I actually had tears in my eyes when the Thai taxi driver kindly said, “Thank you for visiting Thailand! We hope you will come back!” His words stuck in my head and even though I was severely sleep deprived, the moment I landed back in the States, I began working out if it would be possible for me to take an extended trip to Thailand.

A few French friends that I had met in Koh Samui (a small island in Southern Thailand) mentioned that being a native English speaker could open some doors abroad if I was interested in teaching (special thanks to Ludovic, Gregory, Sarah, and Oussama for planting the idea!). After that suggestion, the wheels in my brain started to turn and I entered into the land of online research. It didn’t take long to find a program that administers the TEFL certification (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and an adviser called me right away to discuss the program. We ended up talking on the phone for close to an hour about my options, and by the end of the phone call, I had a new vision for my future. Three and a half months later (after quitting my job, selling most of my belongings, maneuvering quite a few logistics, and leaving Seattle in the rear-view mirror), I left the U.S. with a one way ticket to Thailand.

So there is the “long story, semi-short” version of how I have found myself in Southeast Asia on a bit of a “leap of faith”. I have been here close to 2 months now and can say with certainty, it is one of the best decisions I could have made for myself at this point in life. That is not to say there hasn’t been or won’t continue to be challenges, frustrations, and self-doubt at times, but on the whole, I am very grateful for this opportunity. Now that I have this blog set up (many thanks to my classmate Conner for helping to get it off the ground), I am looking forward to sharing more about the experience with you! Will write more soon.

Love,
Marissa

P.S. I’ve included some photos from my March trip below. You can see why I wasn’t quite ready to leave!