As I sit here writing this, I am roughly three and a half months out from when I returned stateside after spending time living abroad. I was fortunate enough to have an experience that lent me the opportunity to know immense growth, self-actualization and what it is like to really befriend the voice in your head, the heaviness in your heart and the space in your soul.

I think there have been times in my life when it would not have mattered how far or long I traveled, any troubles or pains would have followed me because they were internal.

However, before I left for my European adventure, I was buzzing with energy and excitement because for some unexplainable reason, I knew that cultivating a home that was thousands of miles away from my actual home was the exact situation I was hungry for.

I soon realized though, that home can be many places, all at once.

Europe became my home, the city of Prague became my home, my happy room in my apartment on Jungmannova street became my home and before long, anywhere I went started to feel like home because as I have come to understand, home is a place where you are present, peaceful and feel connected.

With every rising sun and setting sky, my days were packed with stimulation, an overwhelming amount of learning beyond the scope of a classroom, and a satisfied feeling that comes with living from a place of joy and gratitude.

I kept a detailed journal that is now literally busting at the seems from countless brochure cutouts, wine labels, ticket stubs, pressed flowers and any other tangible memorabilia I could fit between the thin pages of a Moleskine journal.

I began the journal with a diary-mentality where I tried writing down all that I did that day, what I felt, what I saw and what I thought. This lasted for a couple of days until I experienced a shift in my intentions.

I started trying to hold each moment so tightly and pushed myself to really try absorbing every scene and image so that I would never forget it or lose it because I knew just how monumental and incredible these opportunities were.

Every trip felt sacred, every bite of food felt unprecedented and every scene on every walk felt like a cutout from a backdrop used in a Hollywood movie.

I went about living with this mentality until I realized that I was spending way too much much energy trying to hold the moment so tightly. This ended up only detracting from being in the moment itself.

I was not letting myself naturally absorb my surroundings, instead, I was trying with all my might to secure my surroundings in my memory.

This was when I came to the understanding that maybe the point of experiencing all of this is so that I can fill a moment with something incredible and have that be enough.

I now know that sometimes, it is more important to create a moment than to create a memory.

Because when creating a moment and being in that moment, there are no expectations because you are not thinking about the past or the future.

You are present.

You are creating moments, not memories.