Aside from my beautiful Instagram photos, traveling with Remote Year hasn’t been easy. I get homesick, I miss out on major milestones with friends and family, I have deadlines in different time zones, I am overlooked for promotions, I am easily overwhelmed with social anxiety, I break down with language barriers, and I also get burnt out more often than you think because I’m only human. On the other hand, I didn’t sign up for this one-year program because I thought it would be easy. I signed up because I felt that I wasn’t growing personally and professionally and wanted to push myself outside of my comfort zone. As an artist, I am a curious being by default with a need to break complacency. I wanted a global perspective and an intense immersion into cultures I wouldn’t have fully gotten to experience if I stayed in my bougie Los Angeles neighborhood. I am now well aware that I should be careful what I wish for because this so-called glamorous year also comes with a heavy dose of fatigue, struggle, rejection, headaches, late-night crying, and loneliness. Traveling to a new city, sometimes new country each month with multiple side trips in between takes a toll on your health and well-being but is also something that I’ve recently accepted as part of my new life.
