43,800 Minutes of Laughing

Exactly a month ago, I boarded a one-way ticket from NYC to the greatest leap of faith of my life.

Today, sitting on the balcony of my apartment overlooking Znjar and the Adriatic Sea, I’ve thinking about the 43,800 minutes of Remote Year I’ve already experienced.

43,800 minutes of floating red wine in the sea, awkward introductions and fits of giggles, language barriers broken with smiles, miles logged on boats and Ubers, gallons of sweat and bruises from stones, all of the gnocchi and the risotto, an influx of Venmo friends and starry-eyed conversations inspired by a little booze and a lot of curiosity to find lifelong friends.

Croatia, you’re one of a kind. Yugen, you’re so special.

As I procrastinate laundry, packing and working on my final day in this beautiful country, I find myself overwhelmed with gratitude, with a calm, easy happiness and with a new perspective on travel, working… and living.

I know my greatest quality – and also my greatest pitfall – is my big ‘ole heart. I went into Remote Year keeping that part of me open, adopting little expectations yet braving many hopes as I imagined what it would be like.

We still have 9 countries to visit, 11 cities to see, many ebbs and flows over the next year, but in a month, I’m already stunned by the love I feel. From watching the sunset nearly every night while local families laugh by the shore, to seeing a group of strangers turn into a thoughtful, considerate (and ahem, drunken) family in a few weeks, my optimistic belief in the power, the beauty and the importance of love is even more rose-colored than before I became a nomad.

I’m struggling to describe to people back home in New York and North Carolina what this experience is like. I often find myself stumbling over my words and trying to piece together sentences that give it the light it deserves. In very short, It’s a lot of work, a lot of play, not a lot of sleep and many more moments of joy than I ever anticipated.