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Today was my last full day in Sydney and in Australia- for now. This truly made my heart sad, I have been tearing up when thinking about leaving here. It truly has felt like home since I could see land in the airways back in September. This trip has truly reminded me that I need to SLOW DOWN. I move way too fast on a daily basis and I need to be reminded sometimes by both family and life that I am moving too fast, not really thinking and truly needing to be in the present mom

October 7th- drive from Apollo Bay to Melbourne I was truly blown away by how beautiful the drive was. The Great Ocean Road is definitely something I need to come back to as well, drive the other way to Adelaide though. I watched the sunrise, sent a voice memo of me being sleepy to Mackie, and worked a bit, then headed to Melbourne. I know you guys are pronouncing it wrong when you read it... Mel Bin. I stopped in Geelong (this one too, just know it hehe) and got some good vi

This morning I woke up with a bit more optimism than normal, and that is hard to do. I think going into the day- I know things will not always go the way that I planned them but for the best, they will come out the way they were always meant to. There will always be good in the bad, and bad in the good. I had a little brekky and a dirty chai and then said goodbye to a city I know I am going to come back to- Halls Gap. It has been my favorite city to be in so far (outside of M

They tell you not to go chasing waterfalls and you know I did it anyway! I spent a lot of the day bouncing around from place to place with little time to settle down. Luckily the drive from stay to stay was not too long but I made sure to go out of my way to see things I may have missed due to where I was staying. In the order of pictures above, I started my day with a 4 km hike to Beehive Falls and had to go out of my way to get the people who were there out of the way. Then

October 3- Last full day in Myrt Relaxing day in Myrt, taking down decorations, naps, fun games with the groomsmen, and then Ben made a lovely dinner while we watched episodes of Criminal Minds. The one we watched was about these boys who escaped from trauma. The person the team was tracking was off his medication so that he could find out his history. They were saying how when you’re unsure of what your trauma is, you kind of stay anchored to the location so that you can fin

October 1- Today Keira showed me her school, not only where she teaches but where she went as well. It’s returning the favor of when she toured my high school. It was so different in a good day, it made me miss the education system a bit. Not that I’d want to go back but being able to help kids learn science is something I’m coming to terms with a bit more. I loved doing science with the kids I’ve watched, and then I get to learn a bit more about it too. She has such passion

Good morning, friends, I did a lot of work this morning, so this will be a shorter blog post as you got three yesterday, lol. Yesterday was a much-deserved relaxing day. Keira and I had a nice, slow start to the morning and then went to Wangaratta for some errands, lunch, and some shopping! I really needed a good, slow day. I took their dog, Winston, on a bit of a walk to ensure that I got out even though it was a lazy day. When we got back from one of the walks, this beautif

Thank you again to my amazing Aussie family for everything! I could not have be more grateful to them. With everywhere I have traveled solo, I have found really great people and I am so fortunate to have found them. (hi to those of who you are following along & met me while traveling!) I got an earlier start today as well, with having the delay due to my human error of yesterday, I did not get a chance to see the whales at all. So I headed into town and spotted quite a coupl

Good morning friends, The day finally came!!! I am back with my favorite Aussie, Keira!! The morning was lovely, had a quick brekky and headed to Myrt! Made pretty good time for the 4 hours that the trip was. I finished the Kosciuszko National Park drive. Saw a wild dog running, and truly has a beautiful hour drive throughout the park. Then I went through some beautiful mountains, and walked on a little path to stretch my legs a bit. Then I finalllllyyyyyy got to see the beau

Holy cow what a day that was. Hi friends, yesterday was a day I’ll remember for quite a while. I started off the day in my typical way, coffee a quick brekky and a quick stop at the best view from a public toilet in Australia. Headed down to my kayak adventure, did some Duolingo and then met Melinda. Little did we know how the day would go for us. We were excited- a trip that was just the two of us versus the water. As we got about half way through the journey I was getting a

Hello friends, I know it has been a couple of days since I posted. I had a little issue with not having Wifi one night and then a whole other busy day. You will learn about that with the September 27th post. The 26th was honestly one of my favorite days so far, I headed out early right after breakfast, around 7:45 to head to Eurobodalla National Park. Some of the reviews were a little poor, saying it was just another bunch of rocks, a good quiet beach, etc. I am so glad I s

Well as many of you know I tend to sometimes get lost, luckily this was lost in a national park! I went to go check out this amazing spot and realized that it was an hour long hike. It ended up switching around my day but I was so grateful to find my way to another national park! I missed out on some fossils, and some aboriginal artifacts but I’ll be sure to see some on the road. I got to enjoy the beautiful National Park of Booderee! It was truly something amazing. There wer

Good evening friends! I am so grateful to be here, I do not think I can put it into words the way I feel when I am here. It is simply incredible. Yesterday (yes I am now doing only one day behind) was so much fun. I was able to go to the beach - not warm enough to swim and the waves were MASSIVE. I had a lot of fun walking around in the Jervis Bay National Park. I saw so many little (and big) animals! I feel as though I am doing a bit better with the alone thing again. I thin

First stop at Royal Good morning, friends! I hope everyone is having a great day, as I am sure it is going to be a great day! I have been able to speak to some of you already and let you know that I landed. If I haven't yet, I made it safely and had a great first night in! I went to bed at 7 PM local time because I was exhausted. Biodiversity at Royal I have been spending a lot of time trying to think about the difference between being alone and being lonely. I brought a wish

Hello Friends, Day 1 - Sunday, September 20th The 24 hours have officially begun. As I am sitting in my home airport, I know that I am about to start such an incredible journey. I was talking to my brother in the car about how I am feeling about the journey, and it made me really nostalgic. I used to travel with a partner, and now this will be my second solo trip in a calendar year. Honestly, it is so nice to kind of follow my own footsteps and go where my feet are leading me

Doodle found on Pinterest Hello friends, Welcome to my alter ego, Jess Jones. Very Superman of me- I know. If you know me well then you know one of my nicknames for my dog is Bo Jones so this is an ode to him. I will be blogging about my Australia trip from this page, please feel free to subscribe if you'd like to be updated with every new post, otherwise check when you would like to. Today is one week until I land down under and I am oh so very excited to go on this adventur

I survived a lot in my life, some things that people know and others that I keep to myself. Not out of fear but because I am healed enough to not let it impact me anymore. There are still times that I let things get under my skin a bit and then I run away—run back to myself to get my feelings in check. To see why I felt that way and why my reaction was to go inside myself, to run instead of stand up for myself. I survived some things that people are afraid to talk about. My r

He found the journal on the train. After the person sitting across the aisle from him got off at the previous stop, Boston St, something caught his eye. It was a burnt red journal with a gold spiral. He couldn't think of who was sitting across from him today; he had a lot on his mind. There were some big decisions that needed to be made before the end of the week. What did he want to do? He did not really have many people he could talk to about it. Sometimes it was really har

One of the things that I love about myself is that I try my hardest to continue to try new things and allow myself to enjoy what I am trying. I have been lucky enough to experience quite a bit. If I had the option to break myself into little pieces, I would do quite a few things. The physical therapist I love understanding how the body moves, functions, and helping people prevent injury. I had a really hard time balancing school and alcohol. I also have a very hard time touch

Journal Prompt #41: What's the hardest part about letting go? What does letting go mean? Letting go is accepting that you have no control over the situation, person, etc. and allowing the feelings associated with it to no longer impact you. You can still feel the feelings, as you should, but it is about not letting them control your perception of the situation once they flow through you. The hardest part for me, about letting go is the fact that I will no longer be in control