Emily Szajda is a chef, writer, yoga instructor and sports nutritionist. From growing up in Iowa to moving to Belgium, her story attests, you can achieve that which you aspire.
Emily Szajda, writer, chef, yoga and meditation instructor and sports nutritionist left “Corporate America” managing high-volume restaurants in Phoenix, Arizona for an entrepreneurial life focused on finding more work/life balance in Europe. After having launched a successful yoga and wellness program with Serendip Spa, a luxury sanctuary in the heart of Brussels, working with the internationally recognized Belgian Beer and Food Magazine, and hosting sumptuous catered events with Bookalokal, a global platform connecting local chefs with a hungry audience, she moved to Barcelona, Spain. Emily helped launch BCN Connections, an educational travel company providing medical professionals continuing education training in Europe while indulging in luxurious wellness retreats. Currently, Emily is working with GBSB Global Business School managing all of the institution's content from tourism and fashion to finance through digital and print. Emily also writes for Basmati, a lifestyle and wellness website and Chowhound, a CBS Interactive website for food enthusiasts. Emily now lives in Washington DC where she offers small group, corporate and private yoga, meditation and mindfulness classes and workshops. She collaborates with recharj® meditation studio, located in the city and Marino Wellness, located in Los Angeles, California. She also provides nutrition counseling to an array of international clients. Emily has appeared on HGTV's House Hunters International and other international media platforms. Find out more here.
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You will receive 3 signed copies of the book AND your name will be included in the acknowledgements, memorializing you as one of the people who made this book possible. PLUS, take advantage of a one-on-one meditation with Emily.
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Invest in your wellbeing. In Brussels? Drop into Emil'y favorite studio, YYoga, a beautiful urban sanctuary in the heart of the city for 5 FREE yoga classes. Take the opportunity to engage in a diverse array of classes given by an astounding international team in a warm, safe environment for students to experience, share and grow in their practice.
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Take meditation to a whole new level. Join Emily in person or remotely for 5 FREE meditation classes. Tap into the power of meditation, and plant the seed of change in your own life.
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Seize fear as a catalyst for propelling you on a great adventure.
Leaving behind the lies that spiraled out of control and unaware of the magic awaiting me - I leaped into the terrifying, dark chasm of uncertainty and boarded the plane.
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Learn how to dump your past and embrace fear because the trek into the great unknown is far less scary than you think.
“Change is scary, but you know what is scarier? Allowing fear to stop you from growing, evolving, and progressing.” - Mandy Hale
Leaving behind the crushing lies that spiraled out of control - and unaware of the magic awaiting me - I leaped into the terrifying, dark chasm of uncertainty. Knowing fully well there were absolutely no guarantees, I boarded the plane to Belgium.
Growing up in Iowa, my adolescence wasn't just characterized by the stereotypical Friday night football games and homecoming parades, but it had been plagued by my mother's infidelity. I, her 13-year old daughter, was charged to keep her secret hidden until one night the burden of grief became too much to bear. That was the beginning to their relationship’s dismal end. The lies no longer weighed heavy on my heart, but that did not offer any solace to the rejection I felt at home. My mother felt betrayed and my father thought I was creating unwarranted drama. It wasn't until years later he threw in his white flag and finally let his high school sweetheart run off with her lover. My parent's melodrama set the stage for my early twenties. Having marred my vision of a healthy relationship, I was left grasping for affection from every angle.
One day, I woke up from the daze I was living in, realizing it was a complete lie. My heart was crushed to find out my boyfriend got engaged the day before he broke up with me. This slap in the face forced me to open my eyes to all the red flags, his addictions, my exhaustingly long working hours and stagnant career. I had been naive. The harsh reality I then faced head on revealed to me, more clearly than anything, that I was no longer living the life I had envisioned. I was stuck. I stopped dreaming. I had put in so much of myself in a man, that what remained of me was a sorry figure of a woman.
Moving abroad was a change and an investment. Leaving behind all the familiarity and security I once called home, life started when I dared say goodbye to my past.
I set out on a mission to be selfish, to follow my hopes and all my desires. I had been dependent long enough and had to shed the hurt and fear that only served to cripple me. I sought to redefine my life. Living out of a backpack was liberating. Trekking across Europe, I met individuals who inspired me, taught me lessons about what life could and should be like.
In this inspirational travel memoir, I share my life’s experiences growing up in small town middle America to landing on the international stage in Brussels, Belgium and Barcelona, Spain. Having been shaped by the misgivings of toxic parents to realizing my worth through a failed relationship, I ultimately won. I paved the life of my dreams through challenging circumstances and want to help others do the same.
Prelude
For months I traveled across Europe but had never been lost, not until one day on a wine tour of Tuscany, when the paradigm of my life hit home, I was lost in more ways than one.
Chapter One: Not So Different
The trauma of my past reared its ugly head only to enlighten me to the fact I was committed to yet another toxic relationship. Settling for less than I deserved. The universe slapped me in the face, only figuratively of course, making me aware of the lies that would give me no better reason to turn and run.
Chapter Two: American Dreams
Was I on my way to having all? I thought I was, it was someone else’s bar I was trying to live up to and seek approval.
Chapter 3: Band Aids & Open Wounds
Letting go of the past is no easy feat, but holding onto resentment is like nurturing a tumor that only seeks to devour you.
Chapter Four: Party for One
I was drawn to the bad boy types, the ones that always left me feeling not good enough. I was having a hard time deciding which to follow, my head or my heart.
Chapter Five: Learning to Love
I had coasted through life long enough. Arriving in Poland to local hospitality, I discovered so much about myself and how much I still needed to grow.
Chapter 6: Gentle Kindness
Reconnecting with an old friend I had met on my previous travels showed me that he had more faith in me than I had in myself. This needed to change.
Chapter Seven: Trusting Strangers
A chance meeting in Krakow found me sailing off the coast of Croatia later that summer making plans to uproot my life in the US.
Chapter Eight: Going Home
When I referenced home, I was no longer envisioning cornfields and Friday night football games, or the sunsets over the deserts in Arizona, but rather I felt drawn to the community of friends I had made in Brussels that welcomed me like family.
Chapter Nine: Why Belgium
Whether out of fear or jealousy, the naysayers tried to detour me off my new path. I had to break up with these past relationships with individuals that no longer propelled me forward in order to fully embrace the future.
Chapter Ten: Lessons in Magic
Creating life altering change takes patience and persistence. I wasn’t given a golden ticket allowing me to stay in Belgium. I had to go through the immigration process like so many others wanting to start again.
Chapter Eleven: The Truth Within
Incongruent living is exhausting. When I finally started to fully know and accept myself without judgement, I decided to leave the job that sponsored my visa to stay in Belgium and, in doing so, I was investing in my own professional ambitions. It was at this time I met “him.”
Chapter Twelve: An Unexpected Goodbye
Rushing to my aunt’s bedside in San Antonio, Texas, she was battling an uphill battle with cancer that would not be won. This solemn visit to a woman that was more a mother to me than my own, served to remind me that I needed to make time for those I loved most.
Chapter Thirteen: What Our Future Holds
I had become my own artist. I was creating a new life with the perfect man that would take me across Europe.
Chapter Fourteen: A Bruised Ego
Rejection wasn’t the end, but only the beginning. Appearing before the Belgian Immigration authorities tested my resolve to commit to my own happiness and the life I was building.
Chapter Fifteen: Living in the Present
Living in Barcelona, friends from Phoenix came to visit triggering a whirl of emotions.
Chapter Sixteen: Definitions
A new yoga student from San Francisco taught me lessons on how I identified myself and what image I portrayed to others.
Chapter Seventeen: Dreaming with Eyes Wide Open
In eight short months we were contemplating forever.
Chapter Eighteen: Potential Abounds
From feeling jailed in an unhealthy relationship to living life as an expat, in just three years my life had no resemblance to what it once was.
Big Time Journey of a Small Town Girl is written for women aged 18-55, Millennials and Generation Xers that feel stuck. So often we find ourselves compromising in life, working at jobs that are less than satisfying, staying in a “comfortable” or convenient relationship, ignoring our own health and well-being at the expense of taking care of others. We live in an era where we live vicariously through others and their social media accounts rather than taking the risk and making a glamorous lifestyle of our own. Coming from a small farm town of 900 residents in rural Iowa, demonstrates to all those women that are settling for a life less than what they aspire or deserve, that they too can branch out into the world, wherever that may be, and make it their own.
In the United States the self-help market was worth $9.9 billion in 2016 and was forecasted a gain of 5.6 % from 2016-2022, where it would reach a net worth of $13.2 billion. While traditionally the sector was sought out by Baby Boomers who favored experts and gurus like Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey, times have changed. Today, Boomers are still present and engaged, but many of the older “teachers” are passing. Millennials are now the largest market and represent the target population as reported by Marketdata LLC. Of these individuals, women are more invested in consuming products and services catered to self-improvement. Publishers Weekly identified gains in readership/sales 18% higher in 2017 than the year before. In 2016, Forbes reported 94% of 18-33 year olds had committed to making self-improvement compared to 84% of baby boomers and 81% of Generation Xers.
Emily will first and foremost utilize her network of connections across the globe to host book launch parties in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe.
Emily has been teaching yoga and meditation for eight years, beginning in Phoenix, AZ. Since 2013, she has been living abroad, teaching internationally and as such, has connections with yoga communities, students and studios in the following countries: Belgium, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, UK and USA.
Professional Website http://emilydawnyogaandwellness.com/
Emily is currently working with both a graphic designer, Alexandra Vintilă and a videographer, Florencia Reolon, to create a launch campaign through various social media channels. She will provide free how-to guides on her website to generate leads and grow her mailing list. In order to create more buzz, Emily will run competitions on Facebook and Instagram, working to inspire women through posting travel pictures and videos with a dedicated hashtag, offering free copies of the book, online how-to podcasts and digital download guides, raffling off in-person yoga classes, one-on-one remote meditations and one meditation retreat in the US.
Contributor
Emails
Reach: 5000 contacts
Social Media
Individual Accounts 6,080+ friends/followers
Groups 50,000 followers
Instagram 1060 followers
LinkedIn 8,700 connections
Professional References
Joshua Coburn, Founder Manners & Motivation, Public Speaker, Life Coach, Author, & Partner with Please Line Clothing
JR Martinez, actor, best-selling author, motivational speaker, advocate & wounded U.S. Army veteran
Online Media
Impact Makers and Business Innovators Radio, Stewart Andrew Alexander Impact Makers Radio Interview
People on the Grid Interview with Katrina Logie People on the Grid Interview
Book Talk on KGNU, Diane Corte, host
On Travel Radio, Paul Lasley and Elizabeth Harryman http://www.ontravel.com/
You Tube PodcastEmily Szajda Channel
Video Book Trailer Produced by Florencia Reolon https://es.l inkedin.com/in/florencia-reolon-yarza-aa271a3a/en
At present these are the individuals, schools and businesses Emily is already working with to arrange events to promote the publishing of the book:
+ Author proposes a national speaking book tour to promote the book in collaboration with these venues.
+ Author will self-promote by contacting newspapers, magazines and radio and TV stations.
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. Cheryl Strayed (Alfred A Knopf, 2012, Biography, Autobiography, Travel)
Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. After her mother’s death her family was fragmented and her marriage was nearing its end. With no experience or training, she made an impetuous decision, driven only by blind will, she would set out to hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would tackle this feat alone. This story documents her life’s adventure and growth through the experience.
Under the Tuscan Sun. Frances Mayes (Random House, 1996 Biography, Travel)
Frances Mayes—accomplished poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer—welcomes the reader on a wonderful adventure when she up and decides to buy and restore an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. Her descriptive tone invites the reader to indulge in her quest to discover Italy through exquisite meals and romantic encounters with beautiful men as she sets out to restart her life in a foreign country.
Eat, Pray, Love. Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin Books, 2006 Memoir)
Elizabeth Gilbert, in her early thirties, had it all, everything a modern American woman was presumed to want--husband, large home, successful career--but instead of feeling happy and content, she felt overwhelmed by it all. Crippled by her divorce and a dark depression, Gilbert regained her sense of self through travel. Gilbert seeks to find her grounding by exploring three different cultures: opulence in Italy, devotion in India, and on the Indonesian island of Bali, a balance between worldly pleasure and divine clarity, effort and surrender.
Three Questions: Because a quarter-life crisis needs answers. Meagan Adele Lopez (Self Published, 2012)
This is a love story based loosely on the author’s own romance with a fellow from Bristol. The relationship traverses continents through letters and delves into a quarter-life crisis, a road trip to Vegas, and two crazy BFFs.
Find Your Happy, an Inspirational Guide to Loving Life to Its Fullest. Shannon Keller (Balboa Press, 2012)
Sharing her personal experiences and understanding, Shannon is able to bring forth universal wisdom and truths to the reader. Shannon's book is a salutary adventure that will transform the way you see yourself and your place in the world. Get ready to fall in love with your entire life -Robyn Griggs Lawrence, author of The Wabi-Sabi House. Being stuck and feeling as if you are trapped is inevitable part of life. Whether you are stuck in a job going nowhere, a bad relationship, or self-defeating patterns, Find Your Happy provides solutions to help the reader move forward in life.
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Adelaide Books LLC
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Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.
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Braughler Books LLC
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Emerald Lake Books
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i2i Publishing
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Isabella Media Inc
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Koehler Books
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1106 Design, LLC
Dear Author, Service publisher Children Fiction, Christian Fiction, Commercial Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Essay, Literary Fiction, Mind & Body, Mystery, Thriller, Horror & Suspense, Mythology & Folk Tales, Poetry, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Women's Fiction, YA Fiction, Biography & Memoir, Business & Money, Career & Success, Children Non-Fiction, Christian Non-Fiction, Cookbooks, Food & Wine, Communication Skills, Corporate Culture, Current Affairs, Economics, Education, Entrepreneurship & Small Business, Health, Fitness & Dieting, History, Humor & Entertainment, Journalism, Management & Leadership, Marketing & Sales, Mindfulness & Happiness, Money & Investment, Motivation & Inspiration, Nature & Environment, Parenting, Personal Growth & Self-Improvement, Philosophy, Politics & Social Sciences, Popular Science, Productivity & Time Management, Psychology, Reference, Religion & Spirituality, Science, Sex & Relationships, Society & Culture, Sports & Outdoors, Technology & the Future, Travel, YA Non-Fiction, Science Fiction & Humour Worldwide |
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Atmosphere Press
250 copies • Partial manuscript. Service publisher Children Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mind & Body, Mystery, Thriller, Horror & Suspense, Romantic Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, YA Fiction, Biography & Memoir, Business & Money, Career & Success, Cookbooks, Food & Wine, Health, Fitness & Dieting, History, Journalism, Personal Growth & Self-Improvement, Politics & Social Sciences, Religion & Spirituality, Science, Society & Culture, Sports & Outdoors, Technology & the Future, Travel Worldwide |
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100 copies • Partial manuscript. Service publisher Children Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mind & Body, Mystery, Thriller, Horror & Suspense, Romantic Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, YA Fiction, Biography & Memoir, Business & Money, Career & Success, Cookbooks, Food & Wine, Health, Fitness & Dieting, History, Journalism, Personal Growth & Self-Improvement, Politics & Social Sciences, Religion & Spirituality, Science, Society & Culture, Sports & Outdoors, Technology & the Future, Travel Worldwide |
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eBooks2go
100 copies • Completed manuscript. Service publisher Children Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mind & Body, Mystery, Thriller, Horror & Suspense, Romantic Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, YA Fiction, Biography & Memoir, Business & Money, Career & Success, Cookbooks, Food & Wine, Health, Fitness & Dieting, History, Journalism, Personal Growth & Self-Improvement, Politics & Social Sciences, Religion & Spirituality, Science, Society & Culture, Sports & Outdoors, Technology & the Future, Travel Worldwide |
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Happy Self Publishing
100 copies • Completed manuscript. Service publisher Children Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mind & Body, Mystery, Thriller, Horror & Suspense, Romantic Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, YA Fiction, Biography & Memoir, Business & Money, Career & Success, Cookbooks, Food & Wine, Health, Fitness & Dieting, History, Journalism, Personal Growth & Self-Improvement, Politics & Social Sciences, Religion & Spirituality, Science, Society & Culture, Sports & Outdoors, Technology & the Future, Travel Worldwide |
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Project Bestseller
Bestsellers are great. Long-term sellers are even better. We'll help you do both. Service publisher Mind & Body, Biography & Memoir, Business & Money, Career & Success, Health, Fitness & Dieting, Personal Growth & Self-Improvement, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Travel Worldwide |
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ShieldCrest Publishing
ShieldCrest are book publishers based in the UK who fill that vital gap for talented authors where mainstream publishers are unwilling to give them that chance. We strive for excellence and invest in our authors and are listed in FreeIndex as the number one independent publisher in the UK for price quality and service rated author satisfaction. We publish books of all genres including; fiction, historical, biographies and children's books. Service publisher Children Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mind & Body, Mystery, Thriller, Horror & Suspense, Romantic Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, YA Fiction, Biography & Memoir, Business & Money, Career & Success, Cookbooks, Food & Wine, Health, Fitness & Dieting, History, Journalism, Politics & Social Sciences, Religion & Spirituality, Science, Society & Culture, Sports & Outdoors, Technology & the Future, Travel Worldwide |
“Every dreamer knows it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you’ve never been to, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground.” –Judith Thurmane
“I have no idea where we are,”was all that I could think as I turned down yet another passageway leading in a direction that I knew didn’t seem quite right. Through a series of twists and turns down ancient streets and tiny back alleys, I reluctantly donned the white flag. I was lost. Trying to retrace my footsteps along cobblestone streets, I realized I may have let my guard down, not paying adequate attention to the landmarks that, like bread-crumbs, could lead us back to our tour group’s meeting point. Who knew that Sienna’s historical city center was a labyrinth of secret passages and remote corners, red brick buildings offering little way of distinguishing one from another? Each building embodied centuries of history within its walls. Breathtaking of course, but timeless beauty and eternal charm didn’t offer any aid when what we really needed was a map.
I didn’t know why I kept trying to decipher Italian, as I stared up at the street names etched into white stone tiles. The street of the merchants, the street for the tailors, they all made little sense to me as we strayed deeper into the heart of the old city center, a maze of picturesque Roman ways, which only the locals could navigate without wandering off course. We had drifted away from the rest of our large tour group in hopes of finding fresh fruit from a small local stall nestled down some cozy corridor leading to yet another primitive artifact or ornate façade.
Laura and I had sought a light lunch. It was sweltering outside, beads of sweat dripped from my brow. In this heat, it was hard to imagine joining the others for the pre-ordered three course meal that would of course include a plate of delectable handmade pasta with a mouthwatering sauce of tomatoes so fresh that you could taste the warmth of the Tuscan sun nurturing the vine. The Italian kitchen has no rival. Yes, the French could contend that their cuisine is more sophisticated with the likes of Escoffier and Paul Bocuse, but for me, if I were tempted to indulge in fresh pasta every day I would never tire. Not to mention I haven’t the slightest will to pass up Italian desserts, homemade tiramisu, panna cotta and gelato made of toasted pistachios, all so satisfying it’s difficult to show any self-restraint. But we didn’t indulge in those. With an hour set aside for lunch, our agenda was on schedule, leaving us no time for the wise and much admired afternoon siesta required after such a feast. We were on a guided wine tour through the sumptuous Tuscan countryside, for goodness sake. Why fill up on carbs when there were more tantalizing elixirs to indulge in?
Back to our conquest to find a bundle of succulent grapes, the fruit of the gods, as though Tellus, the Roman god of the earth, would miraculously emerge and satisfy our meager request. A relatively easy task considering we were in Italy. You would think there were open air markets on every street corner, but this romanticized image was not reality. We searched high and low, asking merchants and locals only to be pointed in some far off direction away from the hustling crowds of tourists. Finally, we arrived at the prize, a local shop stocked full of regional produce, our destination. The old man behind the counter shuffled his feet, taking his time as we patiently waited. He tied up the bundles of grapes in two brown paper bags, and as we paid, Laura looked at her wristwatch. Such a simple task had taken much longer than anticipated. Slowly we came to realize, looking around at the tenderly kept houses with tiny window boxes full of fresh, soft pink roses and ivory hydrangeas, we hadn’t the slightest idea how to get back to the groups’ meeting point.
In all my travels, I could proudly say I have never gotten lost, not truly lost at least, up until now.
But as the sun beat down on our naked shoulders, even lost, we took a moment to grab a handful of grapes, so perfect in both shape and color, a vibrant hue of violet so exquisite that when biting into the tender flesh, the grape released a sweetness that can only be likened to the divine. The delicate taste of summer forever lingered on my lips.
It is occasions like these that make life worth living. This was the epiphany that I had reached after the thousands of miles I had travelled and the numerous countries I had visited. It didn’t matter where you are from or where exactly you are going, but the details, the stories in between the lines make the bigger picture more complete. I wasn’t ready to head back and face reality. I liked it out here, even if I wasn’t quite sure where here was exactly.
I had set out on this adventure months ago on a quest for self-discovery, similar to so many others. I wasn’t the first nor would I be the last woman seeking refuge from a devastating heart break. I wasn’t trying to run into the arms of another man, to be swooped off my feet in yet another relationship. I knew that would only be a Band-Aid covering up the larger wound, and that it would never properly fix the damage that had been done. I had needed this time out on my own to regain that sense of self that I inherently lost when our relationship came to an abrupt end.
Getting lost in Tuscany was in short a comedic parody of my life at the moment. For months, I had been carelessly gallivanting around Europe with no compass to guide me. It was a complete change from the life I had once known managing fine dining restaurants and working for a prominent resort back in the United States. From a very young age I had been taught to be the responsible type, never the vagabond. My father had instilled these ethics in me, having been led by his example. He taught me to work hard and that in doing so I would be successful. In Phoenix, Arizona, my last place of residence before taking the time to travel, I was considered the woman in-the-know, educated, successful, and driven.
That is until I woke up unexpectedly one day from the daze I was living in to find I was nothing like that girl I used to know. I had been dating a man for nearly five years, and somewhere in the midst of falling head-over-heels in love, I started to lose the drive for greatness that I had once possessed. When I found myself on the losing end of a horrible relationship that was stained with lies and deceit, it was too late. The harm had already been done. I was no longer following the path I had intended to be on. I had realistic dreams. I wanted to earn my post graduate degree, to live abroad and to someday own my own business. But somewhere I wandered astray, and every day seemed like the same old routine, an anticlimactic scene from the movie Groundhog Day.
Being lost had a whole new meaning. I had hit a crossroads in my life, and there was no turning back. I had to move on and press forward, start living more fully. What that meant I hadn’t the slightest clue. I just knew I had to be selfish for a while. For the greater part of our relationship, I had given of myself for the betterment of the relationship without asking anything in return. I was tired and felt I had been mistreated. The time had come that I needed to reinvest in myself, to put myself first.
Instead of losing myself figuratively in a relationship, I needed to lose myself in the world. I needed to remove myself from the comforts of home, of security or complacency in order to discover what made me tick, what motivated me.
When Laura and I found ourselves in this silly quandary that day in Sienna, I found myself laughing. A quest for fruit, go figure. I asked to roam free, to get lost in the world and sure enough the universe handed it to me on a silver Etruscan platter. Don’t go throwing wishes around, choose wisely and be more objective, the universe was saying.
We were short on time and far from finding our way, but hey, there were alternatives. Catching the tour would be the easiest and most productive. All I knew was that I didn’t want to miss out on an indulgent afternoon of sipping wine in one of the most renowned regions of the world. A girl has to have priorities, right?! Taking the train wasn’t for me. I was on a mission; the wine enthusiast inside me would not miss out on her share of the lot. Laura was on the same page, fairly cool-headed, so we started to make progress. Reaching for the red headsets we had stashed away in our purses it was clear that we still might make the tour. Sporting the not-so-fashionable headset in Italy was the least of our concerns. What mattered most was that we were starting to think more strategically about how to overcome the misadventure we found ourselves in.
The signal was faint; we looked like that guy on the television commercial advertising cell phones, “Can you hear me now?” but there wasn’t anyone on the other end of the line. Maybe, just maybe the guided tour had already started and we would soon be in range of the broadcast. This would be the much needed clue to complete the puzzle. The whole afternoon felt like this staged performance that was meant to teach me yet another life lesson.
In almost a blazing sprint, well, maybe not that fast because we were weaving our way through the masses, dodging elbows, we were making headway. We heard the faintest muffled sounds from the headsets as we looked at one another. The tour had started. We stopped, trying to find the direction where the signal got stronger. We looked like we were caught in a cage, two steps one way, we decided that was not quite right, so we took three in the other until we identified the direction we needed to head. Before long we could hear the entire program clear as day, and we turned the corner only to run straight into the thirty plus other members in our group with the same identifiable red headsets.
What a sight! We were short on breath and my heart was beating out of my chest, like a drum keeping the rhythm of the march. The tension and worry vanquished as a warm breeze swept it off into the distant hills. We had arrived.
~~~
My travels had taken me on a road map across Western Europe, from Poland to Ireland, Belgium to Croatia and many places in between. I met a wealth of individuals who were once strangers, but I could now call close friends. I was like a child with eyes wide open seeing the world for the first time with awe and wonderment. I continue to explore and live my life abroad in this way.
I was searching for something at the time, but I didn’t know what I would find, until out of the darkness it found me. From dismal lows where I didn’t feel like getting out of bed in the morning to incredible highs like the time I felt like I was on top on the world, standing on the cliff’s edge on Croagh Patrick overlooking the tiny islands that dotted the West Coast of Ireland, I finally experienced what it truly meant to live, to put oneself out in the middle of life’s beautiful chaos, and to be okay in the midst of change. Yes, I was lost, and I am glad I was. Losing myself in my failed relationship wasn’t the end of the world, nor was having hit a stale moment in my career, but it was exactly what I needed. There was so much more that I had not even figured into my equation. Life is a series of experiences, good and bad, meant to make you wager between the two, to become aware and live up to your innate potential.
I had stopped dreaming, and that had caused me great anxiety. Only to find that it wasn’t permanent. Since I was a little girl I had an amazing imagination and determination to go against the norm, to be different in the face of conformity, to write my own legacy. I thank my ex-boyfriend for the gift he had given to me. He set me free to dream again, to find my place of peace, to change into the woman I was yet to become.
Join me on my journey.
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Thanks for sharing your story, Emily. Can’t wait to read it!
Thank you Tiffany!
you're absolutely and amazingly wonderful.. best wishes beautiful.
Thank you Ellie for giving me the inspiration!
So excited for you!
Thank you Janet!!
So excited to read
Thank you so much for your support Rachel!
If anyone asks, the Victor Public Library will have a copy.
Thank you Tiffany for making it available! I appreciate your support!
Good luck Emily! React for the stars. You deserve it!
Thank you so much Cindy!!
❤ Wishing you well from your hometown, Victor! Eric and Heidi Van Buren
Thank you so much Heidi and Eric!!
Just purchased your book. Can't wait to read!
Thank you Sue!!
You got this!!!!! Love ya
Thank you for your support Melinda!!
Can't wait to get your book!!
Thank you for your support Fawn!
Counting down to receiving my copy of Big Time Journey of a Small Town Girl. All the best!
Thank you so much for your support Melissa! I appreciate it!
on Jan. 15, 2019, 4:56 p.m.
Excited to read this book!
on Jan. 17, 2019, 7:06 p.m.
Thank you for your support Mariajose!!