{"id":661,"date":"2023-10-10T08:09:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T08:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/?p=661"},"modified":"2023-10-10T10:40:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T10:40:30","slug":"the-one-way-ticket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/blog\/the-one-way-ticket\/","title":{"rendered":"The One-Way Ticket I’ll Never Return From"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s October of 2021.<\/p>\n

I’m sitting in my dad’s living room in my hometown, the prairie city of Winnipeg, Canada.<\/p>\n

At this point, I’ve been living with him for about 16 months, after moving back home from Victoria during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

I’ve been talking about moving away for years \u2014 in fact, I made it clear to my dad before I returned to Winnipeg that my stay would be temporary and that I would soon be pursuing my dream of becoming a digital nomad.<\/p>\n

Where would I be going? I initially wasn’t sure, but, by October 2021 I had made my decision.<\/p>\n

Colombia.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure my family 100% believed me, but I told them of my plans.<\/p>\n

And so, I bought my one-way ticket 11 days before the flight.<\/p>\n

October 15th:
\nWinnipeg –> Toronto, Toronto –> Newark, Newark –> Bogot\u00e1.<\/p>\n

Over the next ten days, I packed my two bags, boxed up my remaining possessions, and said goodbye to my friends and family.<\/p>\n

\"Everything<\/p>\n

Canadian society was still being locked down at the whims of government officials, so my last days were mostly spent at home alone.<\/p>\n

But that’s okay, I didn’t care. I knew that I was standing at the edge of a life-changing experience, and all I had left to do was jump.<\/p>\n

Emerging From My Cocoon<\/h2>\n

Arriving in Colombia felt surreal.<\/p>\n

I had been learning about the country and watching vlogs from travelers for months, if not longer.<\/p>\n

In the span of 24 hours I was transported from the cold, distant society of Winnipeg during the pandemic to the warm, vibrant streets of Bogot\u00e1. I felt like I was emerging from a cocoon.<\/p>\n

I went in as one version of myself, tightly bundled by the Canadian comforts I had known all of my life, and emerged as a different version of myself. One with a level of mobility that I had never experienced before.<\/p>\n

I had little in terms of preparation. I had a backpack, a small duffel bag, a savings account with ~$20,000 CAD, and three nights booked in a hostel.<\/p>\n

I didn’t know a single person in Colombia prior to arriving, and I was going completely alone.<\/p>\n

I had no idea what was in store for me. I didn’t know where I would be going, how long I would stay, or what I would do once I got there.<\/p>\n

All I knew was that I was embarking on a journey and that I would never return home as the same person again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In October of 2021, I embarked on a adventure with a one-way ticket, knowing that I would never return as the same person. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zennenleggett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}