This is the seventeenth article in Bears Doing Big Things, a weekly column celebrating the tales of notable M-A alumni. Read final week’s article right here.
After graduating from faculty, Christine Williams saved up cash whereas working odd jobs, together with a stint at Café Borrone, earlier than spontaneously shopping for a big backpack and a one-way ticket to Mexico. “I had no thought what I used to be doing,” she mentioned. “I simply needed to see the world. I’m not a lot of a planner in relation to journey—I normally simply go with the move.” She ended up touring round Mexico, then Guatemala, after which Nicaragua and Panama, embarking on what turned an 8-year-long journey round the world. While exploring Central and South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Australia, Williams stayed in hostels, hitchhiked, began her personal advertising enterprise and a profitable journey weblog, and met her present husband whereas working at a Peruvian nonprofit group.
Williams’s senior portrait in the 2005 M-A yearbook.
Williams’ adventurous spirit and keenness for writing inventive tales and understanding different individuals had been nurtured by the programs she took at M-A, together with Maria Angelone’s Creative Writing class and Jim MacKenzie’s Psychology class. She mentioned, “Ms. Angelone was so cool—form of funky and enjoyable, a bit youthful than the different academics at the time. I do quite a lot of inventive writing for work, so I feel that class form of jump-started a ardour in me to put in writing tales and be inventive. And psychology was tremendous attention-grabbing—I now do quite a lot of content material writing for manufacturers and social media, so I’ve to get into the thoughts of the buyer by enthusiastic about what they want and need out of life.”
Outside of sophistication, Williams loved performing and movie. She created a movie membership with a pal, finding out movies and filming scenes from motion pictures, and carried out in performs with the California Theatre Center.
After M-A, Williams attended UC Santa Barbara. She remembered, “College was tremendous enjoyable. I bopped round quite a lot of totally different majors—I used to be going to do Communications, then Psychology, then Sociology. It was actually exhausting to decide on only one factor. I ultimately settled on Global Studies. I actually simply needed to discover and journey, so I figured that Global Studies was the closest factor to touring.”
Williams and Hatfield backpacking collectively.
Then, Williams headed off to Mexico and past. She periodically ran out of cash and got here house to work and save up once more. She mentioned, “I actually needed to do nonprofit work in several international locations as a result of that was a giant a part of what I’d studied in Global Studies. On my first day at a company in Peru, I met my present husband. Back then, he was just a few loopy Australian man who was doing the similar factor as me: volunteering and backpacking. We spent six months collectively at that nonprofit and determined to maintain touring collectively.”
Williams continued, “We labored with a lot of grassroots nonprofits and had been capable of make connections with individuals in the communities and actually hearken to what they needed as a substitute of coming in and being like, ‘Don’t you need this?’ In Peru, we helped out after a giant earthquake by doing building and group improvement, and educating in native colleges. In the Philippines, we labored with a bunch of feminine hurricane survivors and helped them develop their candle-making enterprise, which was superior.”
Williams, Hatfield, and a neighborhood household at the seashore in Tacloban City, Philippines.
Williams and her future husband Jules Hatfield needed to proceed touring however wanted to discover a technique to earn an revenue. Williams hadn’t but established a profession in addition to working at nonprofits, and Hatfield had been a highschool English trainer in Australia. Williams mentioned, “We had collected all these tales and pictures so we had been like, ‘Okay, let’s make a journey weblog!’ and that’s the way it began. We determined to give attention to sustainable journey, like the best way to be eco-friendly and respectful of native cultures. It was going okay—we had been form of dropping some steam, after which we went to a journey blogger convention in Thailand and met different bloggers from throughout the world which was actually inspiring, so we determined to maintain going. After that, the weblog skyrocketed and have become actually profitable. We nearly gave up on it, however thank goodness we didn’t!”
Williams engaged on the weblog in Bali, Indonesia.
Williams and Hatfield’s weblog, Don’t Forget to Move, companions with manufacturers like Expedia and Kayak, in addition to baggage, backpack, and clothes manufacturers, airways, and accommodations. Their mission assertion reads: “We assist promote and encourage adventurous, genuine, and accountable journey round the world. We present vacationers the best way to see the world authentically by distinctive tales, partaking images and movies, trustworthy opinions and sensible journey ideas.”
On her favourite locations to journey, Williams mentioned, “Cuba may be very cool and distinctive. The Philippines is beautiful—assume islands, white sand, turquoise water—and the individuals there are so pleasant. Guatemala is de facto jungly and lovely. There is a lot to see there. Bali may be very peaceable, the tradition is gorgeous, and the seashores are wonderful.”
Williams partnering with JetBlue for Good to assist paint a mural at a faculty in the Dominican Republic.
Williams and Hatfield journey on buses and trains as a substitute of airplanes after they can to be able to be eco-friendly and see extra sights. Williams mentioned, “We’ve been on some lengthy, 18-hour bus rides, like, mendacity down flat barrelling down a avenue in Vietnam considering, ‘Please let me survive this!’ On buses, I get movement sick, so I normally hearken to music or true crime podcasts. On planes, I attempt to get work executed as a result of I really feel like I can actually focus with out web—in any other case, I are likely to get distracted by social media. When I would like a break from working, I play Angry Birds or Bejeweled.”
Williams and Hatfield have confronted mishaps and challenges whereas on the street together with a number of medical crises. In Cuba, Williams contracted Dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral illness. She remembered, “We went to a neighborhood clinic they usually had been like, ‘You must go to the hospital instantly otherwise you’re gonna die.’ They took us on this very rickety ambulance and once we acquired to the hospital it regarded like an deserted hospital out of a horror film. There was one different affected person in there, the lights had been flickering, the complete factor was so damaged down. We spoke some Spanish they usually spoke some English so we had been making an attempt to determine what they had been saying. It was so creepy being in that hospital with like no WiFi or something. It was a little bit of a catastrophe. Luckily, I ended up being effective.”
“And hitchhiking at all times results in loopy adventures,” Williams added. “You by no means know who’s gonna choose you up. Once, we had been hitchhiking by the mountains in Colombia and the driver supplied my husband and I some actually exhausting Colombian alcohol. He was like, ‘Want some?’ and we had been like, ‘Uhh, no thanks!’ In El Salvador, we acquired picked up by a giant college bus and it was an El Salvadoran gospel choir band. They performed us all these songs and I had an egg shaker in my bag so we had been singing songs in Spanish, simply chilling like we had been part of the band.”
Williams and Hatfield at their wedding ceremony celebration in Mexico.
In 2019, Williams and Hatfield acquired married on the seashore in Mexico. When the pandemic hit, the couple based a advertising enterprise referred to as Passionfruit Creative, doing social media promoting and content material advertising for manufacturers in the sustainable and social influence area. Williams mentioned, “All of our purchasers are giving again and having a optimistic influence. One of them manufactures natural mattress sheets, one other is a well being and wellness market that solely sells moral merchandise. It’s been actually enjoyable—beginning a brand new enterprise is at all times enjoyable. It’s been actually taking off, too. Passionfruit Creative is form of our full-time job proper now.”
Williams’s recommendation to present M-A college students: Travel! Just go actually anyplace. Even in case your mother and father don’t need you to, do it anyway. No matter what you wish to do for work or something like that simply go touring—simply get a backpack and go. In my mother and father’ era you form of needed to get a job and try this one factor in your complete life. I really feel like now you’re capable of bounce round much more and check out a bunch of careers and begin your personal companies and stuff. You by no means know what you’ll find yourself loving.
On her favourite books, Williams mentioned, “I lately beloved Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. The ending was such a visit, and no one else I knew had learn it so I used to be like, ‘Can any individual please learn this e-book so we will speak about it?’ I additionally actually loved White Oleander by Janet Fitch and The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I normally simply learn no matter the newest widespread novel is.”
Disclaimer: Bears Doing Big Things shouldn’t be meant to be a listing rating the most completed or well-known M-A graduates on Earth. It is a group of individuals with a variety of experience, opinions, and phases of life who had been kindly prepared to share their tales. All have knowledge, entertaining anecdotes, and e-book suggestions to share. There are 45,000+ extra completed M-A alums on the market, so preserve an eye fixed out for them!
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