My most amazing experiences have come from showing up in new places, saying yes to adventure, and meeting strangers. I'm forever in pursuit of the places I know the least about. I moved to Malaysia to live with a host family at age 16 as an exchange student, and in that one year, I stayed with 32 different families. Each one -- somehow a connection to my host mother's friends or family-- taught me something new by opening my eyes to how much I have yet to learn from the world. I'm chasing the lessons that 16-year-old me realized were out there, and Couchsurfing seems like the best way to find them.

books- Endure, Sapiens, Let the Great World Spin, Around the World in 80 Days, Candide, Between the World and Me (or anything Ta-Nehisi Coates), The Great Gatsby, The Four Agreements, Americanah, A Thousand Splendid Suns, A Short History of Nearly Everything, anything Bill Bryson music - the "granola & iced coffee" playlist on Spotify, Cameroonian rap, or anything in between