Hello. Hola. Bonjour. Hallo. Ciao. Ni Hao. Marhabaan. Konnichiwa. Zdravstvuyte. Ola. Jambo. Czesc!

I’m Ania – an adventurist, a traveler, an explorer. I am not your average 32 year old woman, and this is not your typical “I quit my 9 to 5 job to travel the world” blog. I am on a mission to visit every country in the world – Yes, all Member and Non-Member States in the United Nations and some other dependencies, territories, and unrecognized “countries”. Here’s the twist: I work full-time in the financial sector. Working in the United States means I have a sad amount of annual leave at my disposal, meaning I have to use my weekends and time off wisely. But, I want to show you that it can be done. That you don’t need to quit your job and leave everything and everyone behind to travel. You too can do both!

I was bred to travel. I inherited the wanderlust gene from my father’s side of the family. He was a traveler on a quest to deepen his knowledge of everything. Living in Poland under communist control, my father’s side of the family was one of the few able to leave the country. They traveled through most of Europe, Central Asia and Northern Africa, buying goods to import and resell back in Poland. My mother’s travels began when she met my father. She was (and is) an enabler; the type of woman that will go along with anything, so long as you are happy. After I was born, my parents immigrated to the United States; and we have since resided in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, USA.

I grew up traveling. Family vacations, sleepaway camps, study abroad programs. As immigrants, my parents had to work extra hard to make ends meet. We lived a very frugal life. Yet, no matter the financial situation, my parents always made sure to set aside money for traveling. “You will always find a way to make money, but you will never find time” – these words were embedded into me. I was taught to take every opportunity presented. I was taught that there is an entire world to explore. I was taught that there is so much more to life than simply living to work.

By my teens, I wanted to see it all. At the same time, I felt the need to study hard, work towards a high-paying career, and give back to my parents for sacrificing their lives in Poland to ensure my brother and I had a life full of opportunities. I sacrificed four years to do just that; and have been questioning my choices ever since. Society breeds us to have this thought process: go to college, work hard, start a family, make a fortune, and then start traveling when you are financially secure (or retired). There is only one problem with this logic – time waits for no one.

I wish my father took his own advice. He eventually had the money to travel, but he had no time. We spent countless nights researching worldwide destinations, making plans for the future. He wanted to see it all. We dreamed of picking up and moving to Cape Town. We made plans to see Mount Kilimanjaro, to tour the Golden Triangle, and to walk the steps of the Great Wall. We constructed elaborate retirement plans each time we watched House Hunters International. Little did we know, he had no future – his time was about to be up.

Make “one day” today. Stop procrastinating what you want to do. Cliché, but, tomorrow is never guaranteed. Do not wait until you are financially stable to travel. Do not wait until you are settled with a family or settled launching your new business to start traveling. Do not wait until retirement. No time will ever be the right time (for anything). The time is now. You will always have something to do; you will always have an excuse.

I lost my father in the beginning of 2014. Just three months later, I met someone that would change my life forever. A temporary, but most influential figure in my life to-date. I was reminded of my goals and taught that my dreams could only be fulfilled by action. I started to live life differently. “Experiences over things” became my motto. Along my journey, I shared some incredible experiences and made some lifelong memories with some extraordinary people. All forever present through writing. You will find traces of these people throughout my posts – as some stayed around, while others left their mark and continued down their own paths.

I want to explore the world. All of it – the wonders, the remarkable, the horrifying, the unbelievable, the questionable, the beautiful world. Let’s set a date: around the world in ten years. 196 by 2025. Ambitious, I know.

My adventure has officially begun.