Year 25: Chasing In my profession we are expected to reflect daily on our performance, emotional responses and technical skills. It is a form of self-analysis that reveals our mistakes to us in an effort to modify our approaches slightly for a better day the following day. So I thought it would be a good exercise to reflect on my past year and determine what I can do to improve my next year and immediately I knew, this chapter of my life was called “Chasing”, my previous year, year 24, was “Living”. In my 24 th year I left the private sector to take this philosophical journey to discover who I was and what my purpose was on this earth and I determined only some of the pieces. I want to continue traveling, I love meeting new people, experiencing new cultures and trying new food. I love God and wouldn’t be who I was today without key people, family and friends in my life. And, I love and am grateful for Mayra and Oliver; they’re my tiny family who are always there for me in times ...
My adventure began in March but I didn’t take to the road until closer to April of 2015. As we, my traveling soul mate and I, began our trip returning to Texas on August 16, 2015, we began to share our reflections as we analyzed what returning to domesticity meant and what the next chapter of our lives would hold. When I started I had a lot of questions I wanted answered: who am I really, am I happy with her and can I accept her for who she is? Are the choices I’m making because I want to make them or am I moving along with the masses? What about my career, how does that shape my personal life? What about God, what does He mean to me? I’ll start from the beginning: Who is Ashley? Accepting me has been a slow process that started in High School. I dismissed all of my friends to find friends that accepted me for me, this concept was new and it was terrifying trying to figure out who I was but I chose the first day of 9 th grade as my do over. The number of people I confid...