Hi! I’m Melanie, a digital nomad, travel blogger, and writer extraordinaire.
I leaped into the nomad life a couple of years ago while searching for a different way of living. I wanted the freedom to travel and work from anywhere – and get out of the 9-5 cycle that left me feeling like I was living for the weekends and my allotted two weeks of vacation.
Sound familiar? Yeah, I didn’t like it either. So I dived into the world of digital nomads. Along the way I…
Now, I’m living in Southeast Asia (unbelievable, right?!), and I want to share everything I’ve learned – so you can make the leap into nomad life too.
Curious about where I’ve been on my nomad travels? I put together this handy map so you can follow my journey as I move around the world.
If you’re wondering where I live right now, check out the nifty pin on the map below. Or follow me on Instagram or Facebook (@thenomadleap) to keep up with my daily adventures!
I loved photography, especially landscapes from around the world. So I collected pictures and used them as screensavers on my computer.
At some point, I got tired of only seeing these breathtaking views through a screen – I wanted to go live in those places I loved looking at. But I never really felt like I could. In my mind, travel was:
My mindset around travel was so ingrained that I never questioned these beliefs. I simply assumed this was the way it would always be for me.
During my junior year of college, I was able to go on a two-week study-abroad trip to Greece. But the difficulty of paying for it only reinforced my attitude: this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that probably wouldn’t happen again.
So after I graduated, I entered the 9-5 corporate world – never knowing any other way to live and work. I spent my weekdays in the office behind a desk, used my allotted PTO on family events, and stayed close to home. I was too scared to do anything different.
I tried to live my life the way I thought I should – even though this made me extremely unhappy.
Her feed was filled with pictures from all over Southeast Asia, which fascinated me. She was teaching English in Seoul, and during her breaks, she’d travel to different places nearby.
I was so inspired by her lifestyle – and so unhappy with the monotonous routine of my life. So I made the spontaneous decision to follow in her footsteps. I would teach English overseas (even though I hated being in a classroom) and travel around the world. So I did all the research on how to make this happen.
Then I told my family about my plans.
As you can imagine, it didn’t go over so well. They talked me out of this “crazy” decision, cautioning me to think it through before making such a drastic lifestyle shift. Their words tapped into my fears and anxieties about living an uncertain life traveling to foreign countries – and my confidence crumbled.
So I settled for making a vague and unformed promise to myself instead: I would travel more. (Whatever the hell that meant!)
Instead, I cycled through the same unfulfilling routine of work-home-eat-sleep every day. I hopped from corporate job to corporate job, never finding joy or satisfaction in my work. I visited family and friends but wasn’t mentally present or fully engaged in the moment.
I felt like I wasn’t really living – simply going through the motions. And most of the time, I was consumed by:
Eventually, I retreated from the world, isolated myself from others, and stopped caring about my health, relationships, and dreams. I sank into a depression so deep that friends and family couldn’t provide the support I needed.
At the advice of my parents, I made a decision that changed everything – I started going to therapy to figure out what I really wanted for my life.
Over the next six months…
When I got back from that amazing trip, I had a perfect moment of clarity about my life:
So I made a new (and more specific) promise to myself: By October 2020, I was quitting my job and traveling around the world for a year – no matter where I was financially or in my career.
Over the next year, I started preparing by making lists, creating budgets, and researching. I scoured the internet for ideas, read hundreds of blog articles, and picked out places I wanted to go.
At the same time,other areas of my life improved:
I was happy – and back on a path I wanted to be on. Because I was finally working toward my dream of traveling the world.
With the world so uncertain, I couldn’t imagine quitting my job in October – especially if most countries weren’t allowing visitors. But I refused to give up on my travel dreams.
At the same time, my workload increased due to layoffs from COVID. With the work-from-home policies in effect, I started working longer hours to meet project deadlines – while feeling confined and isolated living alone in my apartment.
I was headed toward burnout and knew something needed to change.
So that summer, I researched alternative jobs and travel options, looking for some way to make my travel dreams come true. Which is when I made two life-changing discoveries.
So I bought a copywriting course. (Not the answer to my problems, but it’s what I needed at the time!)
I planned to keep my 9-5 job, build a side business, and quit when my freelance work could pay the bills. But I didn’t anticipate the time, energy, and mindset it would take to work two jobs – or become a successful entrepreneur.
For the rest of the year, I focused most of my time on my 9-5 work (because I needed my job to eat and pay the rent). But it zapped my energy and left me little time to create something new.
Until one day in November (a month after the deadline of my October 2020 promise) when I reached my breaking point. I was unhappy, miserable, and fed up with the direction my life was headed – and tired of putting off my travel dreams.
I’ll be honest, I had nothing lined up – no job, side business, or ticket to some exotic destination. My only plan was to live off my savings while I figured out my life. (Brillant, right?)
Over the next few months, I dealt with the mental and emotional aftereffects of such a drastic life change (which I wasn’t prepared for at all). And while it seemed like I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted, I felt stuck in limbo.
I was ecstatic that I’d finally found the courage to leave my 9-5 job behind. But I was also scared of the next step – leaving home and starting my nomad life. Bouncing between these emotional extremes left me uncertain and constantly questioning my choices.
Until the day I got my first COVID vaccine.
I’d (unknowingly, but understandably) let the fear and anxiety of catching COVID in a foreign country stop me from making any plans. But with the vaccine, nothing was holding me back – there was no reason to put off my travel dreams anymore.
I immediately drove to my landlord’s office and told him I was leaving. Then, I spent the following weeks selling my stuff, packing up my life, and getting ready to go.
The time flew by, and I left home on the first Monday in May. I started driving west toward California, and my future travels. I didn’t know my destination or where I’d end up, but I was determined to make the nomad life work for me.
It’s been more than two years since then. Looking back, I can see that my nomad journey wasn’t linear. (Far from it, in fact.) I got lost at times, took detours, and my plans were interrupted more than once.
But I didn’t give up.
I went after my travel dreams and learned some valuable lessons along the way like:
These hard-won lessons are what led me to create The Nomad Leap. I know just how wonderful and challenging this journey can be – and how frustrating it feels when there’s no one you can rely on for guidance.
So I’m here for you – as a friend, coach, mentor, and guide – when you’re ready to make the leap into nomad life.
🤍 Mel
Hi, I’m Melanie!
A few years ago, I decided I was done with rushed vacations and short stays in exotic places. I wanted to travel for months (or years!) on my schedule. So I set out to make it happen – and I learned a lot along the way. Now, I want to share my knowledge so you can master long-term travel, too.
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