Welcome, and thank you for reading! I am Sophia, a 20 something American girl with a lust for life and a wandering spirit which has lead me to some amazing places. Most recently it has lead to Thailand where I now live and work as a wedding planner. I’d like share my experiences/stories/advice with anyone who is interested. 

To begin with I want to provide a short synopsis on what is going on and how it came to be. I am currently living in a part of the world known as South East Asia on the beautiful island of Koh Samui in Southern Thailand. I started this South East Asian journey (in January 2014) in Cambodia and have since made my way to Thailand which in a way is the promised land for me. Thailand was a long awaited destination and the source of most of my dreams and aspirations for quite a while and how it went from being a dream to a reality seems to be best explained in list format:

• I did the whole 4 year university thing right after high school like so many people do and while there I decided I needed to expand my horizons so I studied abroad. Ever since my study abroad trip in 2011 I’ve been addicted to travel. I was lucky enough to land an internship in the event industry in London, England while studying abroad which opened my eyes to so many things in life and pretty much changed everything for me. It was short time studying abroad, only one summer semester, but it was enough to give me the travel bug after visiting some amazing places.
• Fast forward to April 2012, I graduated from university and moved back to London, England a few weeks after graduating. I bought a one way ticket, had no place to stay, hardly any money, but I had motivation, a dream, and that combined with positive energy got me the experience of a life time. Unfortunately though the visa situation did not work out so after about 9 months I had to move home or face potential deportation if I was caught. 😦 – Plenty of traveling and exploration was done in this time though. 
• After moving home and experiencing major culture shock (because I convinced myself I was British) I got a job at a mortgage lender and quickly realized the American dream and the corporate world were not for me. I’m not quite sure why I thought they would be though as I’ve always been in the event/hospitality industry and never really liked big corporations much.
• I quit my job at the mortgage lender sometime in 2013 and decided that I wanted to be a tour guide extraordinaire and started applying for a position that would launch to me to such heights. I found out that most good tour guide positions require an extensive amount of schooling and or teaching experience along with massive amounts of knowledge in the place or thing you are guiding. Most tour guides I came across were ex teachers or had PhDs (neither of which describe me).
• My next logical conclusion was to become a teacher and gain that experience so that I could one day reach my tour guide goal! What better and more fun way to become a teacher and fulfill my love for traveling than by teaching English abroad?? Somehow I decided that Thailand should be the place to do it. Honestly I think picking Thailand randomly was fate because, as embarrassing as it is to say, at the time I decided to move here I knew pretty much nothing about Thailand or South East Asia. Now that I live here though I know it was meant to be! 
• I asked my dear friend to join me in my random and crazy move across the world and 8 months later we made our way Far East. I’d already done the whole moving across the world alone thing and realized that it might be even more fun with a friend so why not!
• The teaching goal did not exactly happen for me (not my thing) but something much more amazing, wonderful, surprising, and fitting happened and I became a wedding planner on the beautiful island of Koh Samui in Thailand. My tour guide dreams will have to be put on hold for a short time while I enjoy the chaotic business of weddings.
• I have now been working as a wedding planner for the past year and 7 months here and I’m absolutely loving it and loving life in all ways.

I’ve decided to share my experiences regarding traveling in Thailand and Cambodia, and working as a dedicated wedding planner and other jobs abroad so that anyone looking to make a big change such as this might have a bit of guidance! My number one piece of advice is (WARNING: IT’S CORNY): if you have a dream, just make it work, go for it, and don’t let obstacles make you quit going after what you want. If I can move across the world twice before the age of 25, anyone can.

I hope you all enjoy reading. 🙂