As we are headed on this journey, you should probably know a bit about me. Travel is in my blood. My parents have both traveled the globe…in fact they met on a plane and reconnected via the busiest airport in the world. Due to my dad’s job, I was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and visited half a dozen countries before moving to California, where I grew up. It is also the place we will always be a complete family, as my mom died there when I was 11. My dad, brother, and I moved to South Carolina when I was in high school and, after a stint back in California, I attended college. When I accepted a spot to earn my master’s at Villanova University, I did not know then how important Philadelphia would be in my life. I immediately felt like it was home, something I had never truly felt. Following graduation, I moved back home, took what I thought would be my dream job, and, when that fell apart, decided I was done pressing pause and was going to live where I wanted…Philadelphia. So I packed my car, stayed on my best friends’ couch for a couple weeks, and started to come back into myself. I have built a life, I am an adjunct professor and work at a non-profit. I have the most remarkable group of friends-I would be lost without them. I am happy. Philadelphia will always be the place where I was brought back but I am so excited for what is next (stay tuned)!

But the most important people are my dad and my little (well, he’ 6’2 and in his 30s but still). They are my north star.

-Kelly