Meet Kathleen
Welcome to my blog about the joys, struggles, and preparation associated with traveling sober with teenagers! I am a parent of two amazing teenagers who keep me on my toes and make me proud constantly! I have been a middle school Science and Conservation Biology teacher, Health teacher, and Behavioral Specialist at a middle school. This means teens are pretty much my life! Sobriety is also a huge priority as you can’t properly take care of others if you aren’t taking care of yourself. I love helping people plan out trips and coaching them through the struggles of traveling without alcohol.
Life for me also revolves heavily around travel because let’s face it, home can be boring for kids and parents. I am a person who is always on the go or planning where to go next. I love adventures with my family, friends and even with students on school field trips. I call them adventures because you truly never know what will happen next! To date, I have been to nearly 30 countries and lived in Southern California, Oregon, and on the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Both my parents were teachers so we lived in St. Croix every summer for 3 months out of the year for ten years. Not a bad gig! Currently, I live with my husband and our two teens in Oregon. We love adventures in the Pacific Northwest as well as anywhere else that seems exciting. I especially love “nerdy” travel like going to movie filming locations throughout the world or Disney Parks. For example, my honeymoon was a 28 day trip to Europe planned completely by yours truly that included Harry Potter and Game of Thrones filming locations as well as a trip to Disneyland Paris.
The school I worked at is an environmental middle school focused on field-based research and conservation. Pretty cool huh? I got to teach students in an “outdoor school” environment at least 8 times per year including 6 overnight trips. Our largest overnight field trip was a week in the San Juan Islands off of the Washington coast with all 33 8th graders.
Through these experiences and all future adventures, I think it is time to spread the wealth of knowledge and mistakes I have made over the years. Education goes far beyond the classroom as we never truly stop learning. A HUGE part of traveling is supporting everyone’s mental health and making sure this Mama is sane too!
I am also BIG on courage. Courage has the root word “cour” that is French (coeur) for “heart.” In English, even the word “core” refers to the center of who you are. So basically, when you have courage, it means your inner self is filled with strength and love. As a mother, teacher, friend, sister, daughter, photographer, and writer my goal is to create courage within myself and build courage in others on a daily basis. Encouragement to me is filling someone with love. That, I feel, is my true purpose and why I am writing this blog right now.
