I am not a Tottenham Hotspurs football fan by any means but I will admit that I live by their slogan, ‘To Do Is To Dare’! Some people have fancy positive quotations dotted around their homes in order to encourage and motivate them in life but these five little words are my inspiration and encouragement when ever I am wanting to do something out of my comfort zone. If you ‘Don’t Dare to Do Anything then you Won’t Do Anything’. FACT!

I have never regarded myself as a slave to modern society, always having jobs which punish me to allowing my freedom and when ever I did have a job I would find it hard to settle. If I applied myself then maybe I could be a manager of a company but for me what would that achieve? A big house, a car, a picket fence and a cage. Freedom has always been my way of life and I have never yet been really tied down and I will admit, I do not intend to but sadly this way of living does not come cheap and the sacrifices you have to make in order to maintain this freedom is not easy giving up fancy clothes and shoes, premium coffee, steak dinners at home but what does this get you in the long run? But I will admit, my intention is to have both and this is where Tottenham’s slogan carry’s so much for me because if I never tried then how would I know if I fail? I was once told, ‘both, always both for anything when it came to making a decision.

But my intention is to not scare you and show you the downfalls but what you can achieve in having freedom, even if it is for a short time in your life or just in a holiday. Everyone has that right to freedom.

I will admit at the start, I was shy around people until I started working as a photojournalist working in different scenarios which push you out of your comfort zone everyday, giving me the confidence to speak to new people from all walks of life and learn their background story. My most memorable was talking to someone traveling from the bottom of the United States to Canada, sleeping in his car, airbnb’s and the odd hotel. To me as a ‘brit’ this would never have been heard of as sadly due to a certain type of community, this has given travel country wide a bad name, creating restrictions on the freedoms that we have to see my beautiful country. But this conversation has always stuck in my mind and I will admit, I was hooked. Now this was freedom!

Sadly after the break up of my beloved finance, life changed, I was tied and stuck, out of money to the point that I had to take an early payment from universal credits in order to pay my mortgage. I was stuck in a rut, not knowing what to do and where to go but as time starts to heal and the head starts to focus again, these 5 words pop back into my head ‘To Do Is To Dare’ and so I dared. I WILL NEVER GO DOWN THAT PATH AGAIN!

Arise Arizona

Now I want to dare! Even though that conversation about sleeping and travelling in their car was pre covid, it never left my mind. If I have something in my head, I want to peruse it. Finances were getting better, I was learning how to trade on the stocks to earn even more money. Things were going in the right direction and from this, I wanted to learn how to be a travel photographer and what better way to learn then to do it in one of my favourite states in the USA, Arizona.

The whole point was to learn how to possibly generate an income, meet new people, network and become acquainted with the art of travel photography, putting on both my photojournalist and landscape photography hats on as well as a cowboy hat. This is it! To Dare is to Do right? So with this in mind, I got to work, planning. I wanted to do as much of Arizona as I possibly could in 3 weeks, starting in Phoenix and working my way clock wise around the state. Everything was ready and set except one thing, my ESTA which is the documentation that allows you into the USA. If you do not have this visa, you are not coming in. I had already had an esta but was due to expire whilst I was away. Sadly during this time, my fear, anxiety and grief from the break up of my American finance starting to surface, impacting my mindset which I had worked so hard to control raised its ugly head and so procrastinating purchasing one of these vital visas which only costs £30 for 3 years started to be pushed back, again and again until the time I went to apply for one which has usually taken me less than 2 hours to receive confirmation was taking longer to the point that I contacted the US Immigration service on ESTA’s which told me that it is now taking longer to process and so the date I had booked to go, I would have been turned around at Heathrow airport if this had not come through and so in a panic, I contacted the airlines to move my date which cost (dear mummy) an extra £500 as well as me having to cancel my car and rebook for the following day. Fear lead to a complete mess and an extra £500 so I want to stress how important it is to learn by my mistake, not to leave things to the last minute. My ESTA actually came through that night and so I did not need to move my flight but I will always stress to people to sort any visas and estas with plenty of time before travelling. Even the most experienced travellers can get caught by surprise.

Car Hire!

Phone esim

Getting to the air bnb

trust yourself

Go out of your comfort zone

With this, I am now heading to the snowy Voodoo rocks of Bryce Canyon in Utah and who knows where

Fly Vegas, car, air bnb, bryce, somewhere, vegas, austin, home 10 days. Keep the adventure going.

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