The Spill of Sarah

This is my unveiling.  What a lot of you have been asking for.  My blog.  About me, my travels, and my adventures to come over the next 5 months.

It started in the Summer of 2008.  I had just decided to leave my marriage of almost 4 years and my relationship of almost 15 years.  I will spare you all the painful details, because this is supposed to be about my new beginnings, but let's just say it was the hardest time of my life and the hardest decision I have ever made.  What would it be like to be single in Chicago?  I didn't have many single friends, I had never been "alone".  I had never dated.  Where would I begin??

The inspiration for SOS?
Let me just say that summer was a whirlwind.  As soon as I made a few new friends and started experiencing what my "new life" would be like, I decided it was going to be the "Summer of Sarah".  All about me.  Free.  Living it up.  Doing things I had never experienced.  Going places I had never gone.  Meeting tons of new people that I never could have imagined possible.  And one day, when I briefly mentioned the Summer of Sarah out loud to my boss, she said something along the lines of "Yeah.  It's SOS".  It was perfect.  It stuck.  And boy what a SOS it was.  Quickly the Summer of Sarah turned into the Seasons of  Sarah, which turned into more of the Story of Sarah (because I wasn't quite ready for it all to end).  And I'm still not done.  I'm still having the time of my life, happier than I could have ever thought possible.  I guess now I can say I'm embarking on the Sojourn of Sarah.  Curing my wanderlust.  Living my dream.

So I must give a huge shout out to Angela.  One of my rocks through all of my pain, one who would make me laugh every day regardless of how I was feeling, an unbelievable mentor and friend, my inspiration for SOS, and of course, how could I forget, my wonderful boss too.  ;) Thank you, A. Tay.  I miss you every day already!!!

The inspiration to travel?
Who doesn't want to travel???  But for real... I have had an opportunity to start over.  A "second chance", so to speak.  The two years of my life prior to and during my divorce and the pain I went through changed me.  It broke me down to the weakest person I though I could ever be.  And boy, was it a learning experience.  I realized that you never know what it's like until you've walked a day in someone else's shoes.  I learned to forgive, forget, be less judgmental, not gossip.  I learned my faults, my weaknesses, my 'issues'.  And I came out of it all a better person than I could have ever imagined.  So when I started thinking about my life and what I was going to do now that being a wife wasn't my #1 priority, I realized I wasn't happy in my career.  I wasn't being challenged, wasn't motivated.  I decided I wanted to care about my career, put more effort into it, be more of "career woman".  But of course, the economy started taking a turn for the worse.  And what did I even want to do?  Did I want to stay in the same field?  Did I want to move somewhere else?  I still don't know the answers to those questions.  So why not travel?  I love to travel.  The economy sucks and I probably wouldn't find a job anyway.  I'm single.  My family is healthy.  Why not??  And to top it all off, one of my favorite couples in the world came back in May from their 6 month journey around the globe and their stories were all it took.

So my second shout out and thank you go to Stu and Marisa.  Without them, this trip wouldn't be possible.  They were the ones who pushed me to the side of the fence that said "Do it!  You will never regret it!"  And they have given me more advice and help with my planning that my thank yous could never be enough.  And as Stu would say, "The world is your oyster.  You can just put that little pearl in the palm of your hand..."  And I will do just that!  Love you guys!!!  

The inspiration for "The S of Sarah"?
I'm sure you are wondering, "What exactly is The S of Sarah"?  It can be anything.  It can be what I'm feeling at that particular moment I am blogging.  It can be something that describes where I am, what I'm up to, what I've been doing, what I'm about to do.  And of course it will always have to start with the letter "S" - hence the "Spill" of Sarah...  Spilling my heart out like an open book.  Giving you a little piece of me.  I'm not going to lie.  Sometimes the S words may be lame, they may not seem to make sense, it may be difficult to come up with an S word that is fitting  for the moment or experience.  Try to bare with me.  Try to embrace it.  Try to laugh with me, not at me. :)

So I must give a big thank you to my BFF, Ann, for brainstorming with me and confirming for me what I knew all along should be the name of this blog.  Using her creative brilliance to fine tweak it with me.  Ann - you will always be under my Umbrella, ella, ella.  Mwa!!

This is it.  Everything I wanted to "Spill".  A little long, probably.  But if anyone knows me, I'm a talker... I just hope that I can inspire at least one person to be strong, realize that time does heal all wounds, and that it's ok to take risks, no matter what anyone else says.  Be positive.  Try to always look on the bright side.  Live your dreams.  And like Rihanna would say in one of my favorite songs of all times "Just live your life".