I grew up in a small suburb of Charlotte and have moved around the state, but currently live in Greensboro NC where I work as a middle school teacher. Back in 2018, I went on my first solo adventure to Argentina and I fell in love with the entire process. I stayed in hostels and met other travelers in Buenos Aires. I heard lots of stories from people who were backpacking around South America. In that same trip, I also went camping in Patagonia in the middle of the Argentinian winter. The experience was so unforgettable that it inspired many more trips in the coming years.
I decided to start writing at the Alley Cat to share some of these experiences and to encourage you to visit places that may not be mainstream. As a young woman who has traveled alone, I hope to offer advice as well as dispel fears and anxieties that other women may have around traveling. I hope that the Alley Cat inspires you not only to travel, but also to think meaningfully about the responsibility each of us has to the communities that we visit.
Travelling can mean a lot of things to different people. Some of us travel to take a break from our daily lives and routines. Some of us travel to experience some aspects of cultures different from our own. Some of us travel as a way to self reflect.
Whatever our motivations for traveling may be, I believe that we all learn more about ourselves and how we fit in with our world through experience -- experiencing different places, cultures, foods, people, and scenery.
The Alley Cat is a journal, including guides and recommendations as well as self reflections that my trips have inspired. It is for travelers who try their best to step into someone else's shoes and learn something new about someone else's experience.