When I imagine my future, I see a life full of adventure and experiences. I want to be the kind of person that has a never-ending supply of incredible stories to tell that and everyone falls silent to listen to.

I want to swim with elephants in Thailand, backpack across Europe and see the Great Barrier Reef. I want to run with lions on a safari, explore the Amazon rainforest and chill with the penguins in Antarctica. I want to experience this earth in its entirety for as long as God lets me.

There are so many places I want to visit, but my life is only so long. The goal is to start young and never stop. This is how I am choosing to live my life and I don’t want anything to get in the way of that.

Call me the biggest cliché, but I have two main goals for my life: experience the world and fall in love. Ideally, I would fall in love with someone who also wants to see the world, but I have often thought about the possibility of falling in love with someone who doesn’t share my love for travel and it puts me in a tough spot.

I have a vision for my life — goals for myself as an individual. There is a person in my mind that I aspire to be and I don’t want to give that up for anyone and I don’t think I should have to. In a perfect world, I would find someone who shares my passions, but this world is not perfect.

There is a high probability that I will fall for someone different than myself and this may put a strain on my personal agenda. While I’d be following one dream, I’d be losing another. As shallow as it sounds, I’d have to consider if it were worth it.

I don’t believe there is only one person out there for me, but I do believe that who I marry will set the course for my life thereafter, and I want to make the right choice. I know that if I were to marry a man that didn’t love traveling in the same way that I do, it would drive a wedge between us. If my relationship with him cost me my dream of discovery, I would be resentful. If that is the foundation of what we build our relationship on, it will come crumbling down.

I will not give up my dreams for a man. My soul itches for the chance to get away and if a relationship confines me to stay put, it won’t last long.

Someday, I hope I find a man who can revel in the beauty of this planet with me and help me grow into the person I want to be. I want nothing more than to have a man that I love out there with me to share in all of my experiences, but until then, I am more than happy living life on my own course.