The Day the Road Bent in Uganda, But I Didn’t Break
(From my latest travel memoir based on the journey around the world.) By the time I reached Uganda, I had already been traveling the world for nearly six months – six months of border crossings, new faces, and the quiet rhythm of motion that had become my normal. My journey had started across the oceans […]
Life as a Journey Make Every Moment Count
How many times have you heard the expression, “Live a life worth living”? And how often have you actually given it real thought? The other day, I found myself thinking about someone who lived a life that truly left a mark. It reminded me how fleeting time is, and how important it is to live […]
Paraty, Brazil: A Town That Feels Like a Step Back in Time
(From my memoir, Roam and Return) Back in 2016, during my grand South and North American solo trip, Brazil was the first South American country I explored. With just a couple of weeks to spend there, I wanted to make every day count. My route was set: Rio – Paraty – São Paulo – Florianópolis […]
Change Starts With You
Way too often, people complain about the world around them – it’s too cruel, too indifferent, too selfish, too unfair. Maybe you’ve heard it, maybe you’ve said it yourself. But if we look closer, this kind of thinking usually comes from expecting the world to owe us something. And when it doesn’t meet those expectations, […]
Discovering Yourself or Creating Yourself: Which Path Are You On?
Many of us (or at least some of us) would agree that life can be a tricky journey. It’s far from a straight, easily figured-out path. Some people believe life is about discovering yourself– learning who you are, what you’re good at, and what makes you happy. Others, especially followers of new-age thinking, argue life is […]
The Country That Changed My Sense of Distance
There are places in the world that don’t only surprise you, but they shift something inside you. For me, that place was New Zealand, or The Land of the Long White Cloud. Back in Belarus, it was just a name from a geography book, the farthest country on Earth from where I was born. I used […]
A $5 Backpack and 80,000 Encounters
Have you ever stopped to think about how many people you meet in your lifetime – and how each one, in their own quiet way, shapes who you are? I came across an article recently that really made me pause. It said that on average, we live about 78 years, and we start remembering people […]
Rain, Sun, and a reminder from Rio
Visiting Rio has always been a dream of mine. I’m not even sure why at first, I guess a few things just made it magical in my head: I always knew I’d go, but for a long time, it stayed a dream. Until one day I thought: Why wait? So I quit my job and set off […]
10 Days of Silence That Changed My Life
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you completely disconnected – no phone, no talking, no reading, no music – for ten whole days? Sounds crazy, right?Now imagine spending those ten days meditating for ten hours a day, waking up at 4 a.m., eating just two meals (at 6:30 and 11:30 a.m.), and not […]
You only live once
Follow Your Heart Before It’s Too Late Is there anything that truly inspires you? Something that makes you smile just thinking about it and fills you with motivation? And then, almost instantly, you find yourself thinking: “I wish I could do it now…” or “I wish I had the chance…” Those “I wish” thoughts rarely help. More often […]