I'M NOT AN EXPERT. I'M A TRAVEL ENTHUSIAST.

Before we get into the regular content on this blog, I need to address something. And I'm going to say it once, clearly, so we're all on the same page going forward.

I am not an expert.

I want to say that upfront because the internet has a way of turning anybody with a camera and a passport into some kind of authority figure, and that's not what I'm trying to be. So let me tell you exactly what I am, what I'm not, and why I think that's actually a good thing for you.

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WHAT I'M NOT

I am not a travel journalist. I don't have a degree in tourism or hospitality. I'm not a licensed financial advisor, immigration attorney, visa specialist, or certified anything. I haven't been to every country in the world and I'm not trying to act like I have.

And here's something that some people apparently need to hear — my experience is my experience. Your experience may be completely different. That's not a contradiction. That's just how life works. Two people can go to the same city, stay in different neighborhoods, talk to different people, eat at different spots, and walk away with two completely different impressions. Both can be true at the same time.

I've learned this the hard way after years of talking to people online and off. Some folks hear your experience and immediately want to argue because it doesn't match theirs. That's fine. Argue in the comments. I'll read them. But understand going in — I'm telling you what happened to me, what I saw, what I felt, what worked and what didn't. That's the deal.

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WHAT I AM

Now here's what I actually bring to the table.

I joined the Army at seventeen years old out of a small town near the Georgia-Florida line. I got out of there the only way most people from places like that get out — I signed on the dotted line and let Uncle Sam take me somewhere else. That decision alone taught me more about the world than most people learn in a lifetime of staying put.

I raised my son as a single dad. In the South. Got sole legal custody in a system that wasn't exactly set up to make that easy. Worked full time. Went to school full time at night — shout out to Flagler in Tallahassee — pulled a 3.5 GPA doing it. Not because I'm bragging. Because I want you to understand that when I say I figure things out, I mean I actually figure things out.

I spent nineteen years working with law. Real law. Not TV law. I've walked first year law students at FSU through how to read the legislative history of a statute. I've read more bills, more amendments, more codified law than most people will ever think about. I know how to research. I know how to read the fine print. I know how to find the thing that actually matters buried in a document full of things that don't.

I've lived in South Korea. Lived in Colombia. Lived in Vietnam. Visited Thailand and Cambodia. I've figured out visas, banking, housing, sim cards, local transportation, and how to order food when you don't speak the language — in multiple countries, multiple times. Not on a two week vacation. Actually lived there.

I'm curious by nature. Always have been. And curiosity, in my experience, is worth more than a certificate on the wall.

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WHY THIS MATTERS FOR YOU

Here's the thing about experts. They're great. Go find them when you need them. But sometimes what you actually need is somebody who went and did the thing, ran into the problems, figured it out on the fly, and came back to tell you what actually happened versus what the brochure said.

That's me.

I'm not going to tell you Vietnam is perfect — I left. I'm not going to tell you Medellín is paradise — I left there too. I'm not going to tell you the Army is for everybody or that selling everything and moving abroad is the right move for every person reading this. What I'm going to tell you is what it was actually like. The good, the not so good, the stuff nobody else is saying, and the occasional thing that'll make you rethink something you thought you knew.

Take what's useful. Leave what isn't.

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ONE MORE THING

If you come in with the whole "well that's not how it was when I went" — cool. Tell us about it. Genuinely. Different perspectives make the conversation better. But if you're coming in just to be a dimwit about it, I'm going to treat you accordingly. We're grown. Act like it.

Alright. That's the disclaimer. That's the only time I'm giving it. Now let's get into the good stuff.

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TAGS: About, Travel Enthusiast, Expat Life, Army, Single Dad, Vietnam, Korea,