What I Learned from our European Adventure

Just 10 days ago Fawad and I were enjoying London in all it's beauty. It was a perfectly sunny day and the city was excited (the Royal wedding was taking place the next day) and we were enjoying the aromatic flavors and tastes of Dishoom restaurant. It was the culmination of our 26 day European adventure and we would be departing the next day on a 5:50 AM flight.

After lunch, as we were walking through the city hand in hand, I couldn't believe that over 3 years of dreaming and planning, and a year of saving had brought us to 6 different counties in Europe for a whole month. And in this moment, in just a matter of hours we would be leaving and going home. It was in this moment that I realized something. Something I think I knew all along. 

I had dreamt about traveling across Europe since high school. Since my first time out of the country on a mission trip to Panama at age 15, I have loved everything about traveling. Experiencing new places, new sites, new cultures, and my favorite: other languages. It's just always been a passion of mine.

When Fawad and I got married my dream of traveling became our dream. We would daydream of which countries we would go to and talk about how we could make it happen. We started saving and were on the verge of going last year but we ended up buying our house so we waited a little longer. Until this year in April, my life-long bucket list item, and our longterm daydream took shape.

We visited 6 countries and 9 cities. It was truly everything I hoped it would be. I've traveled a bit by myself and I have to say, it was so wonderful to see and experience everything with Fawad by my side. The cities we visited were Rome, Florence, Venice in Italy; everywhere in Santorini, Greece; Istanbul, Turkey; Paris, France; Lisbon, Portugal; Crawley and London, U.K. Here are some highlights:

Piazza de Michelangelo, Florence

Piazza de Michelangelo, Florence Italy

Fira, Santorini Greece

Oia, Santorini

Fira, Santorini. Best Airbnb ever.

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

Paris, France

Lisbon, Portugal

While the trip was truly amazing, looking back it seemed so short, compared to all the time we were thinking about it and saving for it. It made me realize something: most of your life is spent planning, saving for something, looking forward to something. And when that thing happens, it's satisfying yes but it's just so brief on the spectrum of your life. 

I'm just so aware now of the process, the mundane, the normal. Cause that’s where your life is spent.

You'll have those highlights and mountain top moments yes, but for the 95% of the time, it's just... life. Normal, everyday life. However you choose to create it.

So as I'm thinking of this it makes me think of my business. While I am excited to go full time and quit my day job, I want to enjoy this time too. Cause this side hustle period will be brief on the grand scale of things. So, as I'm reflecting on the trip in light of my business, I want to make more time for creativity. I don't just want to be doing "biz to-dos" like posting to Instagram or content writing. I want to actually paint and draw and be free in the creative-ness of the work.

So, goals for post-Europe: enjoy the moments. Are you loving where you're at? If not, why not? What can you do to enjoy the time more? 

These are questions I'm asking myself and I hope you'll ask them too.