In the beginning of 2020 I quit my job and moved to Dubai by myself to travel the world, leaving everything I knew and loved behind as I committed to the biggest step towards self-love I had ever taken.
Although boarding that flight was one of the scariest things I had ever done, it was also the most courageous and life-changing moments I have ever experienced. Needless to say my year didn’t go according to plan and after just two months in Dubai the world, and my travel plans, came to a grinding halt as the Coronavirus pandemic brought us to our knees.
Stuck in lockdown in my apartment in Dubai, I turned to the little blog I had created (the one I am so grateful you are visiting right now) for solace. Although I had originally started Someplace Wilder as a way to document my travels, during lockdown I felt pulled to start writing and sharing the things that were most important to me: self-love, self-empowerment and conscious living. I have been fascinated by our human minds and hearts since I was 13 years old and experienced grief for the first time when my father passed away. Many years of reading and researching later I decided to get my certificate in holistic life coaching with dreams that one day I’d be able to help others live happier lives, and have better relationships with themselves.
This is the love that I started pouring into Someplace Wilder. In the beginning I didn’t expect anyone to read the words I was writing, but surely enough people did, and every blog post seemed to speak to something within them with words they were needing to hear.
After four months of lockdown in Dubai my travel dreams came to an official end and with a full heart I returned to my home and loved ones in South Africa. As soon as my feet hit SA soil my life started hurtling along in the most beautiful direction, as if everything has shifted back into alignment. Kyle and I renovated our home, got engaged, we both started new careers, got married, and every day we try live in a state of complete gratitude for just how much we love this life.
In 2022 we also welcomed our first child, our son Travis, into the world. Becoming a mother has been one of the simple biggest life changes I have ever experienced. It has left no stone unturned in my life and every day I am in awe of how beautiful, wondrous, challenging, exhausting and soul-changing this journey of motherhood is.
The purpose of Someplace Wilder has changed over the years, from travel blog, to self-love blog, to online store, and now back to the one purpose that just feels the best – my blog. A space for me to write, to learn, to grow and to share and I guess it will just keep evolving as I do.
Thank you for being here.
Whitney
xxx