Then, we moved to Whidbey Island, which is off the coast of Seattle. Whidbey Island is in the middle of the Puget Sound, and there are tons of killer whales that swim nearby. After that, I moved back to San Diego for a little while before moving again to Washington, D.C.! Then... back to San Diego, then back to Washington, DC.
By then, it was time for me to move out on my own, and I went to college at the University of Southern California (Fight On, Trojans!) in Los Angeles. By then, I had been all over the United States, but I'd never gotten to travel outside the country. So when I graduated from college, I decided to start working for a travel magazine, and bought a one-way ticket to the Philippines, a big group of islands in Southeast Asia.
I stayed there for a little while before moving to Vietnam--you may have heard about Vietnam because the United States fought a war there a long time ago. But even though there's a lot of history to learn about, the people are just as friendly and happy to share a different perspective on life. Living in Asia was great! The culture is entirely different from America, and it's very rare for people to speak English very well, which made it tough to find my way around sometimes. But the people are incredibly friendly and helpful, the food is truly amazing, and the landscape is like something you see in the movies, with beautiful white beaches, clear water, and palm trees everywhere.
After being in Asia for about a year, I decided to move somewhere that felt a little more like home, but I wasn't ready to come back to America yet.
