My Journey to Untamed Explorations: A Story of Freedom and Discovery

As a child, we didn’t really have the means to travel. I grew up in a small town in Arkansas, the daughter of a single mom, with a younger brother by my side. I never truly went without, but I also didn’t have many opportunities to see the world beyond my small town. So, I created my own adventures.

As an 80s and 90s kid, I lived outside. I spent my days riding bikes, building forts, playing in the woods, getting muddy, making up games with the kids in the neighborhood. But even then, I wanted more than just adventure in the woods and there was a curiosity burning inside me.

That curiosity led me to one of my earliest forms of travel…penpals. (Yes, the kind where you write letters on paper and send them across the world!) I got my first penpal in 6th grade. As a shy and introverted kid, it was the perfect outlet. Eventually, I had over 100 penpals around the world. I wrote long letters on Lisa Frank stationery, decorating each one with stickers. 

Reading was another portal for me growing up. I could get lost in a book for hours, traveling inside the story as if I were living another life. Books gave me a way to explore long before I had a passport. So did nature. Even today, nature brings me back to myself faster than anything.

The Fire to Explore

That curiosity to know life beyond my own lived experience has been inside me since I was young. Maybe it’s the Sagittarius in me, but I always had an inner fire to see more. When I left home, I finally got the chance.

I saw the ocean for the first time on my senior trip to Cozumel. Shortly after high school, I joined the Navy, which took me to Oahu, Hawaii for five years. Those years changed everything.

Growing up, I always felt like the world I lived in was too small for me. I sensed that there was so much more beyond what I knew.  Living in Hawaii gave me my first real taste of adventure and exploration.  It was the first time I found myself surrounded by unfamiliar beauty…land and ocean that didn’t feel anything like home, yet somehow did.

20 year old me -- Maui

In Hawaii, I began to understand what exploration truly gave me: not just freedom from routine, but the freedom to expand. It allowed me to see the world, and myself, in new ways. To shake off the expectations placed on me, especially as a woman. To uncover new parts of myself through every new place or adventure.

Beauty Hunting and Coming Home

I've come to call this practice "beauty hunting," a term coined by Jen Pastiloff. It’s not about surface beauty, but about noticing the small things that remind you that life is good. At its core, beauty hunting is about paying attention. To what moves me. To what softens me. To what makes me feel exactly where I'm meant to be.

Sometimes the beauty is in the view, a shared experience, or the food. Other times, it's the way the air smells or the quiet that settles inside me while watching a sunset. It's not about the outside world being beautiful; it's about what that moment awakens within me...peace, joy, and a deep sense of presence.

Sunset -- Ontario, Canada

This very passion for exploration and discovery is why I created Untamed Explorations. I want other women to experience this same kind of freedom. The freedom that comes from exploring the world and, most importantly, themselves. These retreats are a chance to practice beauty hunting, to shed the expectations placed on us, and to reconnect with our wild and grounded selves. When we move through the world with openness and curiosity, we remember who we are and come home to ourselves again and again.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail on Roan Mountain with a fierce group of women during my Illuminate Retreat.

Our Next Adventure

This blog will be my new space to continue documenting my own adventures. My next post will begin a series on my recent European adventure with my best friend, starting with our time Iceland. Stay tuned to follow along!