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Spin the Globe ProjectSpin the Globe Project

Spin the Globe Project

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Palestine

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Visiting The West Bank: A Perspective on Peace Amongst a Controversial Conflict

updated on February 22, 2019November 10, 20170 Comment on Visiting The West Bank: A Perspective on Peace Amongst a Controversial Conflict

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Welcome! I’m Anna, a nomadic storyteller with an appetite for adventure and a passion for social justice and sustainability. Hence why I backpacked around the globe solo, traveled in a tiny home on wheels for 4 years, and now I’m based out of a small off-grid house building a sustainable farmstead.

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With my wedding around the corner, I’ve been thi With my wedding around the corner, I’ve been thinking a lot about love.

I was thinking about my maternal Mexican grandmother who was impregnated at 15 and forced to marry her older boyfriend and drop out of high school. And then years later, met my white grandfather as a divorcée with two children, and their marriage that bloomed from love, and endured racism, hate, and everything in between dissolved tumultuously.

And how my paternal Jewish Ukrainian grandmother married my older grandfather, just as her own father was passing away, and then lived trapped in a volatile marriage until the day he died.

I think about how my parents married at a courthouse in their Army Dress Blues, just two months after they met in flight school, not for love per se, but some kind of convenience, I believe induced by biological clocks and societal norms. And that predominantly loveless marriage produced me, and then unraveled in the span of just over a decade, as each person grew more into themselves and further from one another, literally and figuratively on different continents.

I myself have had the luxury of living in a time where I could date different men before “settling down”. I’ve even loved more than once. But Ryan is THE love I’ve built a life with. A love that was not arranged, but chosen through emotion, logic, chemistry, and hope. A love that isn’t taboo because we share skin color and spiritual beliefs. Our marriage isn’t forced by pregnancy, livelihood, or a dying parent. A love that has stood through the test of time, stress and hardship, before marriage, unlike my parents.

I have lived on my own before our love, and I don’t need our marriage to live. Our love and marriage are legal and socially accepted. I think about the privilege in that. Because the women I come from, didn’t have it. And so many women, and LGBTQ+ couples around the world still don’t have those freedoms.

I’m excited to marry Ryan, because I love him and want to continue building a life together. But my heart also aches for the women (and men), past and present whom the world has met with different circumstances.

📷: Engagement photos by the lovely @traynephotography
Planning my wedding has been an emotional rollerco Planning my wedding has been an emotional rollercoaster.

To be honest, I never thought I’d have a wedding. I always dreamt of eloping in nature.

But then the pandemic happened, and the world suddenly mandated the physical separation of loved ones. Beyond that though, my lifestyle happened.

First, I was a child of an Army mom, and we moved a lot. Throughout those moves, I somehow managed to retain a few childhood friends. Then as I transitioned into adulthood, I continued my nomadic lifestyle. As I moved in and out of new spaces, I collected more people that I care about sprinkled around the world.

Ryan’s family and friends, on the other hand, mostly live in the tristate area. We just spent the holidays there visiting everyone he cares about, and the convenience of that, made me envious.

My family is another story. They’re fractured, both emotionally and geographically.

In the end, it became clear that there’s probably never going to be another time or way to get everyone we both care about in one place.

So for me, our wedding is the convergence of way more than just our love. Our wedding will be the converging of our former lives, each version of ourselves, and all the people that shaped us along the way. And that was an idea I could get behind. After all, getting to be reunited with all the characters in my story, even though we are on new chapters in our own lives, seems like something you can’t put a price tag on.

That all being said, the guest list part of wedding planning has really dredged up a lot of trauma for me.

I come from a broken home. And while that word may seem like a dramatic way to indicate “divorce,” I think it very accurately sums up the complexity of my personal experience.

I wish I could say that as an adult, I am healed from the wounds of my childhood. It certainly could have been worse. But unfortunately, that sentiment is not a magical wand that dulls the pain of old scars.

As I try to sort through my own memories and emotions to determine what is best for my mental health, I thought I’d share in case anyone else is going through something similar. Maybe we can feel less alone in this element of this tradition.
I fell asleep and 5 years unraveled like a loose t I fell asleep and 5 years unraveled like a loose thread in a worn sweater.

I thought a good sweater was meant to fit forever, but I realized that a loose thread could create something new.
~~~

5 years ago, I quit my job. Up until that point, my life hadn’t quite been ordinary, but it had been more traditionally accepted by society.

Now, my past is like a dream just after I wake up. When I can still make out the scope of what happened, but the details get vaguer by the minute, with each fresh memory pushing them away.

All the vistas I’ve seen, blurred together in a cloud of dust in my rearview mirror. All the people met, a distant thought. Job titles held, no longer relevant. Mailing addresses listed on forms, forgotten.

I’m glad I’m not my 26-year old self. Busy, and burdened with problems I didn’t yet have the words for. 

In a way, I’m more like that 17-year-old that dreamt of being a writer and traveling the world. Believing that there were hidden answers somewhere behind man made borders.

The girl who trusted that life was simple. And that the complex parts could be deciphered with some time and care.

But after circling the globe, I discovered that even the simplest things in life can be made complex. And the problem is not untangling complexity, but accepting the fact that there is much that cannot be controlled.

Instead, I vowed to take control of my own destiny. I would simplify my goals, my accommodations, the company I kept, my purpose even. I would become simple myself.

And eventually I became a story about a girl who traded a fast paced life, an apartment in NYC, and a salary… all for a big question mark.

That ? grew into a series of life altering choices, each leading gently to the next. Until one day I woke up next to the man I will marry, the dogs I love like children, and in a camper I manifested, slowly heading back home.

Home. A word I had long ago decided didn’t refer to a place, but a feeling. And now I have a place and a person that conjure that feeling for me ✨
I have two announcements… 1. The “Anna French I have two announcements…

1. The “Anna French” YouTube channel I’ve been cultivating for the past 5 years, is now officially the “Anna and Ryan” channel. For those who don’t know, Ryan and I are getting married in July, and for the last few years he’s become a huge part of my work as well. It’s been a collaboration behind the scenes, and now, we’re making that collaboration more visible. So I really hope that you’ll join us for this new chapter of our lives and storytelling on YouTube. You can find the link in my bio to subscribe if you haven’t already!

2.The first vlog in our shuttle bus series is live on YouTube, and it would mean the world to us if you went and watched it and showed it some love! Just click the follow along on YouTube link in my bio to find the video.
We’ve been traveling full-time in our new rig a We’ve been traveling full-time in our new rig a little over 3 months, and we have a few more months to go before we head back to our other small off grid home (not on wheels) in Colorado.

It’s been a wild ride so far. The second month was a quick and semi-stressful blur full of rain and struggling to readjust to life on the road. But we spent the last month making our way through California, with plenty of slow days soaking up the sun.

We visited the Redwoods, did an impromptu snow backpacking trip near Lake Tahoe, stayed at a beautiful tiny house retreat in Ione, visited Kings Canyon, Yosemite, and we concluded our visit to California, rock climbing with some Instagram turned real life friends in Joshua Tree.

It feels so good to be back on the road, and I’m looking forward to the slowness of the next few months now that we’re not running from weather.

📍Land of the Serrano, Cahuilla, Mojave, and Chemehuevi tribes
I’ve put a lot into this app over the years. I’ve poured my heart into my captions. I’ve invested hours editing pictures, and then later, stories, and now reels, as this space evolves and its algorithms demand new things.

I did it despite the fact that I could never quite crack the code to earning an income on here.

& this app, and the people on it have made me feel all sorts of ways. It’s made me feel untrendy, angry, sad, jealous even. Worst of all, it’s made me feel less than.

Granted it has brought me a lot of positivity too. I’ve gotten partnership and job opportunities, made friends, and found infinite inspiration.

My favorite part has been that it feels like a personal photo diary. If you’re old enough (or young enough) to know what LiveJournal and OpenDiary are, then you might understand, but I was a very active participant on those early social media like platforms.

I used to sneak onto our family computer at night, tip-toeing to the library so my mom wouldn’t hear me, wait for the internet to dial up, and log all my deepest thoughts and poems for the world to bear witness.

Then MySpace came around, and I loved curating my corner of the internet to various crevices of my personality. It made me feel heard to have a stranger in Oklahoma or London comment with encouragement.

Since then, social media has changed dramatically. For better and worse, it has become intertwined with our lives, blurring lines between likes and worthiness.

And now, finally, I’m getting offered a small financial compensation for my time on this app (of course it’s only if I produce reels, and they get a lot of views).

YouTube has paid their content creators from the start, but despite that, I have always gravitated to these squares to speak my truths in both written and photographic forms. And while I would rather get paid for THAT, if it must be reels, fine.

But I will have it my way too. I will still pour my soul into my captions, and post the photos that make me happy, and tell the stories I want to remember in the years to come. Wether the algorithm rewards me or not, I will use this app for me, & not just what Instagram wants of me.

📍Land of the Timbisha Shoshone
Once upon a time, Ryan and I were on our second da Once upon a time, Ryan and I were on our second date (a 10 mile hike to a glacier), and as we were swapping stories and sharing dreams, we realized we both had a desire to build and live in a tiny house on some acreage where we could grow our own food.

Flash forward a year and some change, and we bought a not quite “tiny” but very small off grid house on 5 acres to plant some roots. Over the year we’ve had our little slice of earth, we’ve been plotting how we can turn it into an eco-glamping retreat with animals. So we could use it as a source of income, share our remote and beautiful high desert mountain views with others, and bring people to us (since we’re so far from them).

So when I stumbled upon this stunning luxury tiny house retreat on Airbnb, I jumped at the opportunity to soak up the inspiration and relax there.

This lovely tiny ranch style Shangri-La is situated on 10 acres of rolling green hills with a pond, horses and goats. Oh and as you can see, there is an outdoor bathtub in a little zen garden off the deck. This sunset soak was just the cherry on top of an incredible two days of petting goats, feeding horses, watching geese land on water, and unwinding in this paradise.

We filmed a tour of the tiny house and grounds, which we will be uploading to YouTube sometime next month, but I still wanted to share this place with you before then.

If you’re in need of a relaxing getaway, look no further than this idyllic and unique retreat in Ione, California.

📍@ravenbearranch
This last week has been filled with sunshine and s This last week has been filled with sunshine and spontaneous adventures, and it’s been exactly what I needed. I feel so incredibly lucky to have this little family and be living the life we’ve created for ourselves. I’m on a bit of a high going through pictures of all that we’ve done so far on this road trip. I almost forgot about the mold, and the brakes breaking, and the battery charging issues we had. 

I guess in this moment of what feels like some kind of perfection, I wanted to pause to say something that I think is vital.

Even in my happiest and most exciting times, I compare my life to other people’s (once when I was scuba diving with manta rays in Thailand, I saw a photo of someone in Antarctica encountering Emperor Penguins, and I suddenly felt this pang of jealousy).

I say this to say, that incase you ever look at my photos and feel anything close to that, I just want to remind you that I spent about a year and a half total from the age of 26-30 living at my mom’s house to save money while I built out my van, then remodeled my van, and worked on her political campaigns, and built the foundation that would lead to the freedom of my current life.

There were many “failures” that happened in that timeframe that I’m still not brave enough to broadcast publicly.

Then I spent most of my 30th year hibernating, rarely leaving the house or changing out of my pajamas. A lot of that was pandemic related, but still, it was my reality.

Now, I finally feel like all those moments of feeling like a failure of sorts, have paid off. All those days spent depriving myself of vitamin D, exercise, and living a “glamorous” life, have led to this. 

A life where I wake up next to my best friend and we can do whatever we want everyday, we get to travel to beautiful places, and have a little stationary home and land to grow food to go back to.

I have achieved stability with spontaneous adventure. Something I wasn’t even sure was possible until now.

But it didn’t happen overnight.

So if you’re in a weird place, and you’re looking at someone’s highlight reel, please remember that so much happens behind the scenes and before any person’s successes hit your radar.
It was this good girl’s first birthday yesterday It was this good girl’s first birthday yesterday!

To be honest, the main reason we got a second dog, was so Nova could have a buddy. And every time I see them play together, it makes me smile inside and out.

Juniper was actually adopted and then returned to a shelter by another family, and by the time we got her, she was 3 months old and afraid of everything (especially men).

When we first took Nova to meet her at her foster house, they didn’t have a ton of interest in each other and Nova seemed a little freaked out that we were trying to trade her in for a younger model.

But since we brought her home, she’s followed Nova around everywhere, and even though Nova gets inpatient with her sometimes, she’s been a good mentor to her little sister, and I just think the bond these two have developed is the cutest thing.

And even though Juniper doesn’t seem to be interested in learning any tricks besides sit, she’s come such a long way in these last 9 months since she came into our lives.

She calmly interacts with other dogs and humans, which we were worried about because she was SO skittish when we first got her (and still is timid at first with new people). 

She loves hiking and fetching (but not returning) things, and splashing around in water (but not swimming). And she loves wrestling with Nova and sitting on my chest until I wake up in the morning.

I’m so glad you chose us as your humans and decided to trust us. You truly bring so much joy into our days with your antics.

I don’t know how we got so lucky with two of the best dogs, but I’m eternally grateful! Happy birthday June Bug! 🥳

Swipe for some more pictures of June’s first year on earth.

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