Well, hello there! I am quite notorious for smirking. My name is Kat and I’m a 34-year-old homegrown Houstonian finding herself treading the path of the unknown, limitless possibilities of the world. I recently left a 12-year tenure with the oil and gas industry for this opportunity. My career began with aimless ambition in a mail room and ended with a background in Financial Analysis and Budget Management. Turns out I have a knack for budgeting and planning. The other parts of me I mostly already knew; a lover of arts, food, knowledge and pink hair.
Growing up, I spent nearly every summer visiting family in Ohio, but the allure of travel didn’t really hit me until my dad brought up the idea of taking a road trip in 2011. It was around this time I was working on rebuilding my life after a long haul of poor decisions (ahh, my early 20’s, I remember thee well), so the mention of a trip to escape and see new things sounded like a dream. My sisters joined us over the following two years for road trips to Niagara Falls, Philadelphia, DC, the Grand Canyon and river rafting in Cañon City. By April 2014 I had a passport and visa in hand on my way to Beijing – solo.
I felt terrified, exhilarated, free. I wanted more.
I had discovered a new love and embraced the progression of my career even though I felt the disappointment of what life was looking like full time in a corporate cube. I didn’t mind the work, but overall, I felt tired and unhappy. Eventually, there was little meaning to my position apart from the pride in doing it well. I yearned for something different, but fear kept me from looking beyond the comfortable complacency of it all. I lived this way until 2018 hit me with roadblocks and emotional low points I hadn’t experienced in years. They were a wakeup call. I retreated in introspection questioning every part of my life that wasn’t serving me. I decided I couldn’t keep living with the unhappiness I felt. I had to do something. Months of planning and courage later the job is behind me, my things are packed away in a storage facility and I’m venturing off in search of more while I dig up a long lost passion: writing.
I have learned so much from other bloggers over the years, from recipe suggestions to travel tips to crafting and so forth. I begin this blog with three goals in mind. My personal objectives include being committed to something while I am not working and keeping a record of my experiences. The last is to offer additional insight and inspiration to the wealth of knowledge already available in the blogging community. So, if you enjoy cooking, eating, coffee, breweries, travel, museums, painting, creating, rants, Holga photography, finances, planning, nature, self-love and cats – to name a few! – then I look forward to sharing my journey with you.
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