Where in the World Has Bri Been?
*Stares Sheepishly into the camera* Hi Everyone, thank you for joining us here today. I know you guys are probably wondering what are we doing here, how’d we get here, and looking for an explanation of much more. Lets get to it shall we?
If you are new here, Hi my name is name is Brianna (Bri). I am a 20-something year old New Yorker who had no idea what she was doing with her twenties, so I decided to make a blog about it. That was in 2019. The blog did pretty well; people interacted, I offered advice, I had a time; but around 2021 my outlet quickly crashed and burned. I don’t want to put too much blame on my previous hosting company but a mixture of an issue with them along with a very scary familial issue left me with no access to my original site. Normally, this would not be a problem but back in 2021 I was in my era of not saving backups or copies of work. In case you’re wondering what this meant for the blog, it meant about 80% of my posts were lost to the void… I guess things don’t always stay on the internet forever.
Whats the logical thing to do when you lose 2 years’ worth of work? Obviously, the only answer is to cry about it. Thats exactly what I did; I cried about it for a while and slowly but surely attempted to rebuild my blog from scratch. If you were around for the first time we had the blog, you’ll notice that a lot of posts are missing, I can do but so much. However, if you are new here, I encourage you to take a look around and relive with me what my early 20’s were like. Now because so much has changed in the nearly 3 years we have been apart it feels like it’s only right to give a long awaited life update.
2021
Its always best to start from the beginning. June 2021, I had an exciting offer to move to Asia and teach English abroad. As someone who spent a good portion of her teenage years interested in Japanese and Korean culture this felt like a dream to me, a dream no one knew about, and I wasn’t quite ready to share. A random evening in early June my parents are rushing me to get dressed because it turns out that one of my siblings suffered a massive stroke. When something traumatic happens in your life it makes you begin to question all of your decisions and life choices. Well, I didn’t have much time to ponder because I had a vacation the next week with my closest friends to tell them of my plans to move to South Korea.
I was on the fence about moving; in front of me I had the opportunity of a lifetime, but one state away I had a sister whom I was afraid to leave. I proceeded with the vacation as planned and planned a great dinner to tell my friends the news. Let’s face it, it wasn’t like I was moving to another state, SK is a 16-hour flight away and my girls were not long-haul flight girlies. Maybe it was luck or maybe it was manifestation, but I got a phone call the second day of vacation that changed the course of my career.
From Teacher to Flight Attendant
After I got the job in South Korea, there was one person I told the news to; my therapist (I miss you Katie). Her almost immediate response was to apply to safety jobs because SK is a little far. I realized she had a point, but as smart as she was, I was equally as stubborn; so I took her advice but in a way I knew wouldn’t work. I reapplied to my dream job since childhood, a flight attendant. Fast forward to this random vacation day months later, I receive a phone call from an unknown number telling me I got the job. Here I am in Mexico on a vacation with a bunch of friends who have no idea that I was planning to move to Korea and now another option arises; stay home and work the job that’s been my dream for as long as I can remember. If you don’t follow me on socials, well here’s the opportunity, AND I’ll spoil it for you and say I still haven’t been to South Korea. Fast Forward 2.5 years and this is still one of the greatest decisions I have ever made.
2022-2023
At this point I’ve been a flight attendant for 6 months and I gained a new aviation opportunity to move on to a higher paying airline with more opportunities to travel. I make promises about coming back to my blog but much isn’t really done. I get a new hosting company and started building. However, I didn’t realize how much work my new life would be. This new airline is nothing like my last. I went from working at most a 3 hour flight to MSP or New Orleans to being at a carrier that made West Coast Flights a turn (In short, I was working 13 hour days). It didn’t take much for me to get lost in the #Bluejuice and spend most of my time working so the blog was put on the back burner.
We spend months of flying, landing, parking at the gate, and very rarely writing. There were still opportunities where I got to freelance write but nothing too long term or serious because I began keeping redeye hours. In the later half of the year I decide I need a life change, a change of scenery (as if I don’t already live in one of the greatest cities in the world). So, I begin apartment hunting on the West Coast because let’s face is Californians are New Yorkers with a shorter commute and happier lives. I settled on Arizona but yet again another family issue kept me in the state of New York… its like that T-Shirt says ” New York or Nowhere”.
Currently...
Here you have it 2024, some decisions were made, new airlines came about, languages were learned, and friends were lost… sounds like your average mid-twenties. 2024 came and I felt like I hit a wall, I didn’t know where I was going. I felt lost all the time, I didn’t have an outlet for my emotions and experiences; most importantly I missed writing. The whole reason for this blog was to express these things and if people saw it Great! If not, it was a diary for my older self and a guidebook of what NOT to do for those younger. So… I came back. I’ve re-written some posts, forgoed a bunch other. But the point of it is I’m back baby and boy do I have stories to tell. So, if you stayed till the end thank you and welcome back. Come back for Sunday Brunch, Join me for a cuppa, its only chaos from here.
