Well, hello! My name is Tyndal, I'm 20 years old, and I decided to move across the world completely alone about 6 weeks ago. At the time I was nothing but excited, but reality has set in over the last couple of weeks and I've decided that having people to take on the journey with me sounds better than completely foraging ahead by myself (which isn't quite reality, but I'll get to that in a minute). I wanted to save a corner of the internet to share my stories, the things that terrify me, and my dry sense of humor with the world. I hope, after reading this post or any others that I may decide to write in the future, that you'll decide you want to join in the journey and share in my trials, tribulations, and terrific travels!
So, let's start at the beginning. About a year ago, I was supposed to go on a trip with my university wherein I would have spent 6 weeks galavanting through the Italian countryside and speed walking through big Italian cities. If you've been existing on planet Earth the last 18 months, you'll know that there are several reasons traveling to Italy in June of 2020 was a bad idea. After having spent over a year dreaming, planning, and (kind of) language learning, I was understandably crushed when I couldn't make the trek from Oregon to Italy.
Fast forward to April 2021 and I've spent thousands of hours alone in my house watching my classmates and professors through a screen. I was exhausted and bored out of my mind. Life began to feel aimless. The dreams I'd had when I entered college all seemed lackluster and pointless. I knew that living in my parents' house after college and after the pandemic sounded like a really bad idea for everyone involved. So I began to research masters of education grad programs. It's funny to write this now as I think about all the ways in which I hated being involved in higher education. It would've been an absolutely terrible idea to continue to attend university. Anyway, in my search for ways in which to earn a degree that would qualify me to move abroad and teach at an international school, I stumbled across the idea of teaching English at a language school abroad. My family knew someone who had done it so I asked him to coffee and within 20 minutes of talking to him, I knew I was going to do something similar to what he had done. I don't want to go into too much detail of my actual plans or process to get to this point just yet because this post would be about 400 pages long if I did, but suffice to say I decided to move to Naples this fall (2021) and teach English.
Now, let's go back to where I mentioned that it's not quite true I'll be foraging through a foreign country completely alone. About a week and a half ago, I accidentally found a traveling partner. I have been excited to move and apply for a visa and find housing and the whole shebang so whenever I am presented the opportunity to talk about my plans after college, I launch into sharing everything. I went over to a friends' house so that I could pick her up for dinner and I started chatting with her mom while she prepared to leave. Upon sharing my plans with her mom, her sister (who is also a friend of mine) apparently started thinking about how cool my plans were and how much she wanted to join me. About an hour later, she texted me and told me she wanted to go with me to Italy. I could hardly believe my luck! The idea of wandering out into the world with no grounding to my life at home seemed as terrifying as it did exciting. Now, when I am exhausted from attempting to communicate in a language I don't quite understand or when I'm just wanting to eat some pizza with ranch dressing, I will have an American partner in crime with whom I can find comfort.
There are so many good and bad things about my choices and the journey that I'm hoping to take, but I want to live them all as fully and unconditionally as I am able. I want to share about everything from panini to homesickness and I do truly hope you'll join me.
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