ReIntroduction

A ReIntroduction  

Hi! I’m Brenna.  I’m 27 years old and I live in Pittsburgh, PA.  I started this blog when I was 22 years old to share stories of my 6 month mission trip.  The blog was for friends and family to follow alone while I traveled to New Mexico, Jamaica, Belize, and Costa Rica. My mission trip was the hardest and most amazing thing I have ever done.  I would do it again in a second if given the chance.  

When I returned home, I got a job as the Volunteer Coordinator for a local homeless shelter.  For two year years, I managed volunteers to serve everyday meals to the homeless, over a 100 volunteers every holiday, and to manage material donations.  I loved my job and was passionate about what I did.  I also worked managing volunteers on event days.  This means that every fundraising event the organization had, I provided the people to make it possible. It was an amazing job and I was thankful for my time there.  

For the past year, going on two this fall, I have worked for a third-party events company.  I manage vendor relationships, ensuring that when our team gets onsite to build an exhibit they have all the equipment, electric, and materials they need to get started.  My favorite part of this job is the relationships I have formed with vendors and organizing the timelines for each of the events we create. 

I tell you my career path for a few reasons.  I think both these jobs really tell you alot about me.  I love helping those in need.  I enjoy event planning and organization.  Color coordinated spreadsheets are life-giving to me.  Relationship building and human interaction is where I thrive.  (but as a side note, I am an introvert.)

In the past four years of working  the typical 9-5 days, my travel bug still remained present. I took a 10 day trip to Ireland in 2018 and a 7 day trip to Spain in 2019.  I set a goal at the beginning of 2017 that I would go abroad once a year to satisfy my travel bug, visiting a new country each year. Since 2017, traveling abroad at least once has become an annual goal.  Traveling to three new cities in the United States has also become a goal.  

When I first built this blog, I wanted it to solely be a travel blog.  But the reality is that I have not made a career of travel – yet.  I love to write and I wasn’t ready to give up on Brenna Without Borders.  So rather than create an entirely new blog, I have reshaped this one. I like to write about travel, but I also like to write about my feelings.  I like to write about life; how beautiful it is, how much it can break your heart.  The past few years, since I started this blog, I have transitioned through a very hard stage of life that no one ever talks about.  Those years in between college and becoming an adult.  Where you are expected in have it all figured out and just completely grow up.  I constantly felt like everyone else had it figured out and that I was falling behind. I want to encourage others with my writing.  I want to encourage you to travel, but I also want to encourage you that everything is going to be okay. 

There are a few things that will most likely come up when I am writing: 

1. Faith – I am a Christian and I talk about Jesus  a lot. 

2. My cat – his name is Linus, he will be 1 year old in September.  He is mischievous, incredibly difficult and also my right hand man. I love him so much and I apologize for how much I will talk about him.  

3. Exercise – I’m not a crazy gym person, but I love to run (most of the time).  I love yoga because I have really bad anxiety and it calms me down. I love a good cardio class that whips my butt because it makes me feel alive and super accomplished. 

4. Mental health – as I mentioned I have anxiety that comes and goes.  Full transparency, I have struggled with depression on and off throughout my life.  I’m completely comfortable telling you that.  I go to therapy and I also have no shame in saying that because I believe in trying to be the best version of myself and therapy has helped me do that. 

5. Relationships – past and present.  I love all the love and the heart break. Friends and lovers. It’s all good stuff. 

6. The environment – I am a tree hugger and constantly trying to figure out how to use less plastic and save the sea turtles. 

7. Travel – obviously, I strive to travel often and want to share that with you.  I still have a plan to travel internationally once a year (pending Covid) and travel in the US as many times a year as I can. 

Seven seems like a weird place to end, but that is all I got. 

 Over the next few days, I will post updates based on the 7 items I listed above. These posts will set the tone and direction for this blog that I hope to continue.  

As I write this, it is the 5th month of quarantine.  International travel is out of the question right now and so is most domestic.  But I promise I have more to write about now than ever! I have a lot to share and now seems like a better time than ever to start up a passion project!

BWB