Hello! ¡Hola! Nǐ hǎo! Ciao! Cześć! Marhaba! My name is Karissa and I love all things travel, photography, literature, and coffee. I thought I could combine so many of my passions into one space with this blog to give everyone a peek into what it’s like to be a twenty-something solo female traveler who is lost in “the great wide somewhere”.

I have been a very curious person from a very young age. When I was in 2nd grade Santa brought me my very first Nancy Drew computer game for Christmas and I spent hours working on cracking puzzles and solving mysteries. Not long after that, I fell in love with books through the introduction of Nancy Drew mystery novels. I would fly through the books so fast my parents started to question if I was actually comprehending all that I was reading. I understood and cherished every chapter and even had to invest in a reading light because I would stay up reading past the time my bunk-mate sibling wanted the light off. I feel deeply in love with Nancy’s independence and cleverness, so much so that I wanted to be just like her. I dressed like her when I went to school with absolutely no shame because I was proud of what the 1930’s style dresses, knee-high socks, and penny loafers represented in my heart. Nancy Drew was truly who I wanted to be when I grew up; not because I wanted to solve mysteries (although that would be quite cool) but because Nancy was fearless, independent, unapologetic, and curious to a fault. I wanted to be as courageous as Nancy someday and satisfy all the curiosity I had about this wide world. So a couple years later I dove into the world of classic literature. I read works like Pride and Prejudice, The Count of Monte Cristo, Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, and many more. I felt so at home in the world of history and literature but it felt like something was missing. That’s when wanderlust completely infatuated me. It wasn’t enough to just read about far-off lands and histories, I needed to experience everything the world had to offer up close and personal. My wanderlust made getting through high school and then 2 years of community college a bit of a struggle. There was nothing I wanted to do more than buy an impulse ticket to some beautiful place and never come back. I stayed patient, got a day job, graduated college with my Associate of Arts degree, and saved up all that money I needed to take my first ever solo trip to Italy in September 2018, less than 3 months after I graduated college. On this solo trip around Italy, I received my Teaching English as a Foreign Language Certification which has been a perfect fit for me in mixing my dreams as both a traveler and a teacher. And so my wanderlust continues to influence me and every day I dream about all of the places I have never been and the plans I have to go there someday soon. In August 2019, I moved to a little city in Southern Poland where I remained till August 2021. In Poland, I discovered a new faith, as well as the love of my life. On February 28th, 2020 I officially took my shahada (declaration of faith) and entered into the folds of Islam.

I am now planted in Doha, Qatar where I am enrolled at Qatar University pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and Linguistics. I hope my blog can give readers from all walks of life a glimpse into my humble perspective as a Muslim, student, reader/writer, teacher, clueless young adult.