One Life One Encounter

Hi! For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Allison. I’m a 40-something woman who, after a lot of reflection — and honestly, dissection of my life — realized that the life I was told I should want and the life I actually wanted were two very different things.

I started asking myself, “What do I want?” instead of “What is society telling me I should want?” And once I finally got quiet enough to really listen, the answers became pretty clear.

Climbing a corporate ladder was never something I aspired to. Neither was adding another zero to the end of my paycheck. I enjoyed my job, but it wasn’t my passion. It was simply a paycheck. And eventually, I got tired of spending so much of my life doing something that didn’t fill me with purpose or joy.

I had also grown tired of the cycle of overconsumption in the U.S. — this idea that we should work more to make more, so we can spend more to buy more… and on and on it goes. I was tired of being a cog in the wheel. Tired of buying into the narrative that success had to look a certain way.

So I started making different choices. Slower choices. Simpler choices. More intentional choices.

And somewhere along the way, I realized that what I value most isn’t status or stuff — it’s freedom. It’s connection. It’s experiences. It’s waking up and feeling like my life actually belongs to me.

That doesn’t mean I have everything figured out. I don’t. But for the first time in a long time, I feel aligned with the life I’m building instead of trapped inside one I outgrew.

And honestly, I think a lot of us are quietly asking ourselves the same questions.

So I made the decision to let that life go — the job, the car, the stuff. Everything.

And instead, I chose to lean into the thing that has always brought me the most joy: being on the road. Unencumbered.

No final destination in sight. No return ticket booked. No real plan, other than to learn a new language, meet new people, and continue discovering newer versions of myself along the way.

This page is less a travel blog — even though I’m writing it while on the road — and more a space for reflection. A place for the lessons I’ve learned, and the lessons I’m still learning.

It’s my stream of consciousness.

A place where I can put words to the unraveling, the unbecoming, and the becoming of who I truly am meant to be.

Some stories may be about places. Others may be about grief, freedom, love, identity, fear, healing, or starting over. Sometimes I’ll have clarity. Sometimes I won’t. But I think there’s value in documenting the in-between spaces too — the moments where life is still unfolding and nothing feels fully resolved.

I’m not here because I have all the answers.

I’m here because I finally started asking myself the right questions.