The Hannahlogues

In the early days of thinking what this trip could look like, one of my strongest non-negotiables was that I would not – at any cost – seek to turn my journey to self actualization and realization of my true life’s purpose into a commodity. That is to say, I wanted to run further away from the social media highlight reel and that uniquely American instinct to turn something you genuinely enjoy into a product that can be monetized (inevitably removing any fun from that once enjoyable activity).

This felt noble, and proof that I was doing this for the right reasons; if a person quits their job and travels to Europe for three months but doesn’t post about it on social media, did it actually happen?

What I didn’t expect was the outpouring of support and genuine interest from not only my closest friends and family (which they are contractually obligated to provide), but among so many more casual acquaintances – coworkers, staff at doctors offices, coaches and other members at my gym. Or, to use the sociological term for it: my “outer circle”.

I am not so vain as to assume that this interest and support is due to my winning personality and wit. I am not a universally loved person whose thoughts and dreams people would pay top dollar to glean insight into (though they really should). But what I think people have responded to is that I am doing what so many of us have dreamt about: quitting our jobs, leaving our responsibilities behind and galavanting unencumbered somewhere new and exotic for months.

💫 I’m living the dream! 💫

I don’t think the main motivator for wanting to follow along is schadenfreude, per say (I don’t think most of you want to see or would take pleasure in seeing me fail), but moreso the anticipation of seeing what will happen. The thrill of letting me take the risk for you since for so many, the risks (and/or barriers) are too great to ever do something like this. Living vicariously through me in the hopes of wresting a tiny shred of control back from “The Man” through the osmosis of a mere 1 to 2 degrees of separation.

And who knows – maybe I can inspire those of you who have been toying with doing something like this but just haven’t made the leap!

This may be the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, but I do genuinely feel like since I decided to make this step, everywhere I turn, there are articles about micro-retirements, sabbaticals and “the return of the great resignation.” More on my “why” later.

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All of that is to say that this trip feels bigger than me at this moment in time – which I am very excited about – and it’s been more time consuming than anticipated to send the same photos and stories to individual emails and group chats.

I toyed around with a few other platform ideas that wouldn’t require me to dip my toe back in the Instagram waters (and had a worryingly enjoyable conversation with Chat GBT in the process) but ultimately decided that the most logical place to revisit my travel writing and share photos is on the platform that started it all when I moved to Kenya in 2009 and revived when I moved to Jordan in 2013 (don’t go looking for those posts, they are sitting safely in the “unpublished” folder of their respective sites where they can do no further harm with their self-important drivel. A belated apology to those of you who cringed along at some of the poorly-aged musings of 25 year old Hannah in real time).

Feel free to follow along if my journey to this point, or the journey from this point is of interest (or just to hate-scroll my photos).