Meet Tracy, a traveling nurse or should I say a gypsy at heart who has recently made Colorado her new home! She's an Ohio native who discovered at an early age her love for travel and has made it her mission to visit as many countries as possible. Tracy has visited 35 countries so far and has recently crossed off one of her top bucket list items...hiking up to Machu Picchu, the famous ancient Inca ruins city, also a UNESCO world heritage site.
She was a travel nurse for three years and during this period the extra money she made she used to backpack through Europe and Asia.
"I went to 12 new countries, visited the people that I had met in Spain
prior when I lived there and just tried to learn new cultures, see new
things and open my perspective on the world and different cultures."
But traveling is not the only thing Tracy is very passionate about, she is also very passionate about helping people. When both of her grandmothers were diagnosed with cancer, she developed a love for caring for people and decided to become a nurse.
She obtained her nursing degree from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio but before she pursued her nursing career she was stung by the travel bug after taking a road trip around the U.S with one of her best friends. After graduation and her inability to pass the NCLEX (nursing final test), she decided to place her nursing career on hold, she became an English teacher and nanny in Madrid and Fuengirola, Spain. During her three years in Spain, she became completely fluent in Spanish and an expert solo traveler,
"I could either go to Paris by myself or not go, so I forced myself to get
out of my comfort zone."
After living in Spain, having trained and competed in a marathon in Prague she realized that dreams can come true if you don't ever give them up. So with a renew sense of purpose and determination, she returned to the U.S., retook and passed her NCLEX nursing test and finally started her nursing career.
One of her most memorable experiences was the spiritual hike across Spain called Camino De Santiago.
"You meet people from all over the world and you kind of get down to the
nitty-gritty of why you are out here, what's going on in your life, and you
become very deep with the people you meet, you go thru hiking and blisters,
knee aches, and pain but you go through it together, you help each other out...
that was very memorable and very difficult to get through...I learned through
adversity and hardship that I can accomplish anything I put my mind to."
Her zest for life and zest for travel has now brought her to Colorado and she is looking forward to exploring new home, "I just feel like there is an adventure around every corner...the energy of
the people here is very inviting and energetic", she shares as she looks out at the Colorado terrain and I can sense she's already planning in her head her next adventure.
