Hi there! I'm Jodi, and thanks for stopping by. In February 2017 at 38 years old, I left home in Washington, DC to travel in SE Asia for six months. My original intent in taking time off work was to pursue a life of location independence and to determine how to make money online as a digital nomad. But, the universe had other plans for me.
Three months into the trip, I traveled to Ubud, Bali, in Indonesia to participate in a 200 hour yoga teacher training. I joined the training hoping to deepen my yoga practice; what I didn't expect was to come out of it with an entirely new perspective on life.
So while I intended to travel throughout SE Asia for my six months off work, what instead happened was I decided to stay in Bali to deepen my yoga practice for the remaining four months. I'm currently back in Washington, DC, at my 9-5 job. Yet, I am trying to practice what I learned in Bali and continue to learn about myself and the world on a daily basis. While maybe not "officially" practicing the yoga physical postures on a daily basis, I am practicing the yogic mentality on a daily basis. What has resulted is relative peace, calm, and ease; taking life as it comes.
I am trained in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction and hold a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training certificate from Blooming Lotus Yoga in Ubud, Bali. I have undergraduate degrees in psychology and social policy and a masters degree in public health.
Having a relatively new addiction to travel, I knew I wanted to figure out how to make travel a more permanent fixture in my life. After returning from a trip to Turkey in May 2015, I picked up my computer and googled “how to travel and work.” What I found was a game changer.
As luck would have it, there is actually this glorious concept called a digital nomad (it is hilarious that there is a wiki link for this). A digital nomad has enough skills to work online, only needing a computer and a solid wifi connection to do so. This means that they can essentially work anywhere in the world if their chosen career allows for that. Being a digital nomad allows you to live a location independent existence, being able to work from anywhere as long as you get your work done.
Wow. I had stumbled upon a gold mine and was instantly hooked. The only question was how to make this location independent lifestyle a reality.
So I brainstormed. I remote job searched. I took a ton of online courses. I learned to code (yep, I coded this site without Wordpress...we'll see how this works out). I hired business coaches. I saved money. I basically tried to learn every way under the sun that I could make money online. Shockingly, there are so many options, it was hard to know what to pick, and frankly, I still haven’t picked.
Rather than focusing on the necessities like how to actually make money online while traveling, I decided to throw caution to the wind and throw myself out there without a guaranteed source of income. Well, I take that back. I ended up asking my US job for six months of leave without pay. So, I do have a job in six months when I go back to see my family and friends (shout-out to my CT and DC peeps…I miss you terribly).
What will happen upon my return though is TBD. Your guess is as good as mine. I could be sick of this whole indefinite travel thing, as I have been many times already and it's only been two months. I could fall in love with it. I could decide I'd like to stay with my 9 to 5 and to have some general life "stability". But let’s just live in the present, guys, and take one day at a time. I’m in Vietnam right now sitting at a restaurant with great wifi writing this. Can’t complain.
So here I find myself without a source of income for six months, but a traveling citizen of the world. So, we’ll see how it goes. Hope you can join me for the ride and read about my ridiculous travel adventures, and learn something about the world in the process.
You see, the world really isn’t as scary as we make it out to be. There’s so much to discover, so much to learn, so much to appreciate about people and cultures different than our own. Travel will only make you stronger. And I love it. So here we are.
I was initially planning to launch this blog with the domain “Solo Travel Tribe." In the process of creating the logo for Solo Travel Tribe, my designer created an icon for the logo that contained two arrows in it (the 'A' and 'V' in Travel). I liked the logo, but wasn’t sure if people would get it as a standalone icon, so I fell back to my natural inclination - googling.
What I ended up stumbling upon though was different arrows - two arrows pointing up. I found pictures of this Celtic symbol in tattoo format, and the symbol means “create your own reality.” Cue angels singing from heaven.
I decided to get this tattoo. I had been wanting one for a while but couldn't decide what I wanted to permanently tattoo on my body. Somehow when I saw this I instantly knew, after 10 years of thinking about thinking about it (shoutout to my sister...inside joke), that this was the one. I went with my gut and got my first tattoo.
Soon thereafter, and in order to maintain authenticity, I went back to what my gut told me from the beginning - that I should go with the Infinite Exploration domain. Why? Because I am constantly exploring the world and myself in the process. Always trying to learn new things about other cultures, people, and myself. Trying to be present yet grow at the same time. Infinitely exploring externally and internally through travel, mindfulness, and everything in between.
But what about the tagline? Somehow it seemed obvious at that point. I had just tattooed a couple of arrows on the back of my neck because I’m in the process of creating my own reality. So here we are. Jodi’s out in the world infinitely exploring and creating her own reality.
I am excited to share this journey with you and to inspire you to create your own reality. There is a whole world out there and you have the power to do what you want with it. Mindset is everything. No matter what you want in life, many things are possible if you set your mind to it.
Was I terrified of leaving my life behind to pursue a life living out of a suitcase (and a couple of backpacks..sigh)? Absolutely. Am I still a bit terrified? Yep. But why was I scared? Why is anyone scared of new things - because it's change.
Change, while sometimes difficult, does not have to be bad. Change is usually good, but because it's unknown, is scary. But yet the only way to grow and move forward is to accept and move with the change. Without change, you will not grow.
So I left my amazing apartment in Washington, DC...I left my family, adorable loving nephews (I'm tearing up as I write about them), a boyfriend, amazing friends, a job, and life as I knew it in Washington, DC for the last 12 years to pursue my dreams. Because the only thing constant in life is change.
“Change is not something that we should fear. Rather, it is something that we should welcome. For without change, nothing in this world would ever grow or blossom, and no one in this world would ever move forward to become the person they’re meant to be.” - Anonymous
I hope that you will join me on my journey. And if I can inspire you to pursue your dreams, all the better. Life is incredibly short. Don't let a tragedy be the reminder of that reality. You only have one life, and it is meant to be lived. If not now, when?
