Hey there, wanderer!
My name is Stephanie, and I’m from Montreal, Canada. I seek wisdom through self-reflection, mindfulness, discovery, and travel, and I impart my learning experiences through revelatory storytelling.
When I’m not blogging or studying personal and professional development coaching (more on that later!), I work as an English language consultant. Some of the services I offer include:
Writing & Editing | Content Marketing | Blog Writing & Consulting | Inbound Marketing | English Second Language Coaching for Corporate Clients and Individuals | Interview & Business Role Play | Copyediting | Translation | Social Media Strategy and Marketing | Speech & Presentation Coaching
…and more!
And oh yeah – I’m also a professional theatre and film actress.
If you’d like to hire me for language services, click here.
If you’d like to learn more about my acting background, Google my name (eek) or click here.
And if you’d like me to shut up and get to the nitty gritty, keep reading!
Why I Started Blogging…
Throughout my twenties, I experienced varying bouts of dissatisfaction and disillusionment with the 9-5 grind. I had developed a sizeable acting resume, two degrees, and enviable career experiences in the private and public sectors; but in typical Millennial fashion, I had no damn clue what I wanted to do with it all.
So I continued to eat, sleep, work and procrastinate finding my life’s purpose. By 30, I had an on again/ off again relationship with my Tinder app and binge drank my weekends away.
And then, rather unexpectedly – a trip to Mexico changed my life.
My friend Zuza, a Polish-born Canadian, was to marry Nathan, a New Zealander she met in a hostel in Brazil several years prior. Their Mexican wedding not only paid homage to their international love story, but also created an opportunity for over a 100 people from different parts of the world – Poland, Canada (like myself), New Zealand, Australia, England, and more – to celebrate and connect with each other. I connected the most with one New Zealander in particular, who politely invited me to partake in a weeklong “romance” with him the very day we met (he had me at hello).
After returning home, my vacation paramour and I kept in constant contact. My feelings grew as romantic notions of an impossible love story started spinning the creative wheels of my mind. What if he and I were actually meant to be together? If only I could live a life free of location dependence – we could actually give things a try.
But wait a minute. If I was location independent, I could give everything a try: my bucket list, winters in Thailand, working out of whimsical cafes in Eastern Europe….
And so, my Kiwi lust revealed itself to be something bigger than I imagined: wanderlust.
After a month, the Kiwi and I sadly realized we weren’t meant to be – but I had a new object of desire, anyway. The spark of our romance had ignited a new dream that set my heart ablaze: to travel the world and write about it.
Everything that followed after that point lent itself to one of my core beliefs: when you follow a path manifested through love and positive energy, the universe will conspire to help you.
In this case, the universe more than helped; it literally started to push me out my front door.
First, I spoke to my biggest client about travelling the world for six months, maybe a year. She said if I didn’t go, she wouldn’t work with me anymore.
A week later, I rented out my apartment to a lovely man who wanted to move in on June 1st. That day was May 17th.
Over the next week and a half, I sold and gave away nearly everything I owned, including my curtains, all my furniture, and half my clothes.
Within five days of posting a photo of my car on Facebook, a friendly woman dropped by to check it out and agreed to take over my lease at my convenience.
I contacted a few schools abroad, and within a week, I had two job offers from schools in Korea. Without so much as a second thought, I jumped on the opportunity to teach at a small private academy in Incheon, Korea. Everything had fallen into place.
The universe was making it so damned easy, I didn’t have a single excuse in the world not to go.
And so, off I went to travel the world in my fedora and hot pink bikini and share my super cool fucking amazing life on Instagram.
But of course, life turned out to be a hell of a lot more messier and unpredictable.
To travel is to take a journey into yourself. – Danny Kaye
After just a few months, this blog morphed into something I could never have envisioned. It became less about destinations and more about the journey. Eventually, my wanderlust grew into something more profound: the love of wandering (wanderlove, if you will) that leads to self-discovery. I returned to Montreal with a more matured version of my original dream: to seek meaningful experiences, both local and abroad. I continue to wander, as before; but now, I’m a vagabond with a purpose.
Thank you for being my companion.
Stephanie xo
