LoveMaqui: Chapter 1, Part Uno: The Lost Lady

"You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.

You're on your own.

And you know what you know.

You are the guy who'll decide where to go.”

- Dr. Seuss

It all started with a young ambitious lady

with a strong desire to help others.

Her name,

Katherine Lillian Richards.

After obtaining two International Business & Management degrees

from Western Carolina University in North Carolina and Avans University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands.

I was a college graduate
and

I was lost.

Like many recent graduates, I was lost to the idea of what to do next. How could anything top my amazing four years of college? Three years in the mountains of NC, living free and dancing in the moment;

and my final year in Europe, traveling everywhere; eating, meeting and greeting everyone and everything I possibly could.

I was not ready to a wear a suit; I just wanted to continue to wear my pack.

For this travel bug I caught in Europe was not going to allow me to settle for a life of an average person.

My soul began to crave new experiences and new adventures.

‎"My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant."

My aim was to learn a second language, that language being Spanish.

I wasn’t sure where to go, just that it had to be somewhere in South America.

Using an online search engine, I programed a flight search for all of the countries in South America for under $400.

Pressed submit. Let it be. Forgot about it.

And anyways, before I could jump into any of this, there was still one major issue I had to address.

This being, of course… money!

I immediately knew the quickest and easiest way to earn what I needed, by what I had done so well before, waitressing.

My dear former boss Tonya, was working in downtown Orlando at a Spanish Tapas Restaurant on Church Street. Since I had just traveled Spain for 2 incredible months with amazing girls and crazy encounters, I was quite pleased with working in such a place.

As it always comes to be in a restaurant setting, I made a family.. Not with children, No.. But with crazy aunts, fun alcoholic uncles, the sweet mother of a boss, the hilariously-perverted recovered cooks and the absolutely amazing and beautiful ladies..

I worked at Ceviche for 6 months, saving and well.. having fun!

One day in January I checked my email and I came across a Kayak report for a round-trip ticket to Quito, Ecuador.
Never estimating my travels would lead me to Ecuador I became intrigued and interested.. So I did what most semi-intelligent people do. I researched.

Ecuador began to become more appealing to me and the more I thought about it the more I realized this was the moment I had waited for.

So after consulting my family and friends, I did it…
I bought my ticket to Ecuador!

Now all I had to do was learn Spanish and find a place to volunteer.

Easy enough right? Well let's not get ahead of ourselves..

“Do the difficult things while they are easy
and do the great things while they are small.

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

― Lao Tzu