Our Wildway Crew highlights ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Within each of us lies the potential to live life to the fullest. We have the ability to choose our own destiny, live without fear or limits, challenge ourselves and grow, do and be whatever makes us happy. We have the ability to be free. It's how you live a Wildway of life and there are people all around us inspiring others with their actions. We want to celebrate that by highlighting and honoring those who #LiveWild. (More on that here)
Meet this week's featured Wildway Crew member:
Jennifer Jones
Wildway of Choice = Coconut Cashew Granola
Meet Jennifer. After 4 years in the military and unsuccessfully trying to find a "typical" career path that excited her, Jennifer threw caution to the wind and set out to make a living doing the one thing she loves most - travel.Here is Jennifer's story in her own words:
"I took my first trip in the summer right before leaving for bootcamp, it was the first time I got to plan a trip, pay for everything, do what I wanted, when I wanted. It was my first real taste of absolute independence and freedom. I was 18 and I bought a grey hound bus ticket from Seattle to Los Angeles, booked a week in a hostel, and printed out a million google maps (this was before everyone had smart phones!) and all this, before telling my parents of my intentions! Needless to say, they were quite shocked when my tickets came in the mail. That trip impacted me more than I could have ever imagined it would. That’s when I was bit by the travel bug.
After that trip I spent the next four years active duty in the military, traveling only when I was granted permission, to places that were considered “ok”, and after doing piles of paperwork. Joining the military at 18 was by far the greatest and smartest decision I could have made for myself—but leaving the military was also the greatest decision.
Since my new found civilian freedom, I’ve gone on a travel binge! In the last year I’ve been to the US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Iceland, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, and Switzerland. I have no intentions of slowing down. I love traveling because it’s such an adventure. Meeting new people, seeing new places, doing crazy things (I just went paragliding for the first time!) hearing new languages, it’s all part of the experience.
I live by two mottos:
I love this because I feel like it NEEDS to be applied to everyones lives. I think it’s so important for everyone to make time to experience a new place, whether its a new city, new state, new country, or on a completely different continent! The world is full of beautiful places, you can’t just see one small piece your entire life.
My parents have always told me to find a job that I love, but society has always told me to find a safe job that pays good. My entire life I’ve been indecisive of what career path I wanted to go down. Two months before graduating high school, I had an epiphany, I realized that I HATED biology (my chosen major) and college wasn’t the right fit for me at the moment (even though I was already accepted and was packing and picking out which dorm room I wanted at Texas A&M). That’s when I decided to enlist. Yup—I made the decision to sign four years of my life away, in a rushed 1.5 month.
I met my husband while we were stationed together, and I had always known that I wasn’t going to be in the military forever, so I decided to be a nurse. I went to nursing school—I hated every second. I was bored out of my mind. One day, while in the hospital, I imagined how my life would be as a nurse and nothing made me more depressed than the thought of not being in love with my job. I quit the nursing program that day.
Since then, I’ve been on a journey of social media, youtube, travel and blogging. This is my chosen career. It always has been. It just took me a long time to be ok with NOT having a “safe” job and instead chase my passion, my extremely wild way of life."
Live Wild. Travel Wild.
