Adventures of an Auntie

Welcome to Adventures of an Auntie, I am Alicia or Auntie Alicia as my little’s refer to me. I am the fun Auntie, the Auntie that let’s them do all the things their parents won’t! The Auntie that helps them play tricks on their parents, the Auntie that lets them eat cake for breakfast and stay up way past their bedtimes. I am the childless Auntie, the Auntie who is lucky enough in life to take adventures and usually has one booked before the current one has come to an end.

A little more about me……I have been a Registered Nurse for 23 years, spending most of those years as a pediatric nurse in a level 1 trauma center. As you can imagine, this part of my life has been wonderful, fulfilling, stressful, and exhausting (physically, mentally and emotionally) all at once. Traveling became my outlet. Allowing me to get away, be someone else, somewhere else for just a small bit of time. Thankfully this career has allowed me the means and the time to allow me to chase my bucket list.

2020 changed my life drastically and not just because the world shut down. It became the year of FML!! My current nursing position was no longer fulfilling and I realized I missed the ER. I needed to be back in the trenches with my co-workers. So I started a new job in May and as I was sailing through life thinking I had it all, my marriage of eighteen years came to a unexpected screeching end in July. I found myself alone in a four bedroom home, feeling like my entire world would never be upright again, trying to learn how to be alone and not lonely, and eventually being tossed back into the world of dating. (again FML!!) Slowly, I started to discover who I was and what I wanted out of MY LIFE. It took several years, a lot of redecorating, and a small fortune in therapy to learn that my life was going to be amazing. I had literally been given a do-over, I could design my life into anything I wanted…..and that is exactly what I decided to do.

In 2022 I realized that I was missing out by waiting for someone to come along on my adventures. There were places I wanted to see, things I wanted to do, restaurants I wanted to try, if I waited for someone to be available I might never get to do these things. If I have learned anything from being a trauma nurse…life is short and we are not promised tomorrow. I was already comfortable doing short day trips, going to museums and restaurants alone. Heck, I already enjoyed going to the movies alone. What was stopping me from taking a trip alone? The only question I had left to ask myself was..”where”? There was a simple answer, the place I had dreamed of for years, ITALY! That afternoon I booked a flight to Rome for my first adventure as a solo female traveler.

October 2022 I arrived in Rome. Nervous, excited, worried that I was in over my head. But, Ihad already decided I was a strong, independent female and I was going to make this one hell of an adventure. For five days I roamed around the city, taking in all the historic sites, being awe inspired by art I had only dreamed of seeing, feeding my soul with some of the most delicious pasta and wine I could only imagine before this trip, sipping espresso in the quaintest sidewalk cafes, and experiencing my very first opera. This trip allowed me to say goodbye to my old life, the old me and helped me take the first steps into becoming who I actually was meant to be all along.

Four years ago I would never have believed I would be where I am today. I have a career that I truly love (no longer in the ER, another life change for the better), a home that I have made all my own, a niece and nephew who keep me young, two fur babies to snuggle, multiple adventures behind me that would never have been possible before my divorce, and I am finally in a truly loving relationship

So….I guess you could say “All roads really do lead to Rome”.

“Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively, unless you can choose a challenge instead of a competence.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt