Howdy, I’m Aaren!
My story began nearly a decade ago in Lake of the Ozarks (Missouri), sitting on a well-loved couch with my older sister.
It was winter of 2016. She was moving abroad to Okinawa, Japan the following spring, and my goal was to fulfill a dream I had never uttered out loud before: I wanted to explore the world.
I applied for my passport, arranged flights, and eight months later my boarding pass was printed in my hands. What lay ahead of me was a six week trip that would change my life forever.
And just like that, the dreams I had as a small-town girl from the Midwest started to unravel. The last ten years have been spent in constant discovery of myself and the world around me. Down rivers. Dipped in an alpine lake. Sun bathing by the sea. On top of mountains. Along roads less traveled.
What Do You Sea is a digital log of my experiences from the road, formatted in a way to help you travel responsibly and more intentionally, creating your own stories around the world.
But it’s never quite that easy? Is it?
I wish I had traveled to Japan for six weeks and immediately started getting paid to travel the world and share my stories. I wish it had been that easy, but unfortunately, this story has its ups and downs, and one hell of an eight-year detour in Dallas, Texas.
2016: After I returned to Missouri from Japan, I had to finish my senior year of high school before I could really set out and chase my dreams. Growing up, my family never went on vacations, not even to Florida, and I knew I had to be the one to fund everything. I worked my whole senior year and saved every cent.
2017: Sitting in my high school library, I bought my web domain, What Do You Sea, and spent the year designing my website. I was inspired by so many original travel bloggers who lived a free life doing what they loved, traveling. I wanted to do the same. May came. I graduated, and shortly after, purchased a one-way flight to Bali. It’s a bit tacky now, isn’t it? But at the time, it was everyone’s gateway. I thought it was going to be mine, too.
September 2017: With $15,000, a 40-liter backpack, and a dream, I departed from St. Louis International Airport for the Ngurah Rai International Airport. I spent three successful weeks in Bali before I was in a scooter accident in the mountains. I had a burn bigger than my hand covering my entire right calf. I couldn’t walk in the morning. I needed real help. I flew to Dallas*.
*Why I flew to Dallas, and not Missouri, is a whole other “I-was-19-and-fell-in-love” subplot that we won’t get into now, but knowing that I was 19 and dumb, sums it up perfectly.
2017 – 2018: After flying to Dallas after my accident, Texas became my new home base. Instead of healing my leg and getting back out into the world (*see aforementioned astric), I chose to travel out-and-back from the Lone Star state. During these years, I visited Okinawa a second time, the Philippines, Scotland, Utah, and Iceland. I was writing for my blog with no real strategy. When funds got low, I got a job at Whole Foods in late 2018.
2019: Considering that I was young and had zero concept of budgeting or financial responsibility, it should come as no surprise that I returned home from Iceland this year with $64 in my bank account. And we all know what was on the horizon…
2020 – 2022: During these next three years, I truly hit a low point in my life. I broke up with the boyfriend I moved to Texas for, moved into a studio that cost half my income, and put international travel on hold until the world let up. I was living paycheck to paycheck and was working on my blog here and there, but nothing serious enough to move the needle. Then one day, I was approached by an editor in early 2022 to do some ghostwriting work for a duo of travel bloggers. That gig doubled my income almost overnight. Starved for travel, and with a newfound hope, I traveled to Wyoming, Tennessee, Montana, Washington, Los Angeles, and New England.
2023: Riding this high, of being able to have a home base and travel, I booked a packrafting trip in Mexico. Immediately after getting back into service, I was notified by the editor that I was no longer needed as a freelancer and that my work would cease at the end of the summer. The rug wasn’t pulled out from under me per se, but the news did come as a shock. If there’s one thing I’ve learned up until this point, it’s that the universe will try to give you something to ensure you’re ready, and if you’re not, it’ll take it away. Clearly, I hadn’t gotten the memo.
2023 (continued): Once you ride the double-income high, it’s hard to come down. I was looking for more work as a writer, and when the Dallas Observer needed more freelance food writers, I jumped on board. At the same time, I moved further into the city and made a decision that got my ass into gear: braces. I got them on in September, and I promised myself that after two years, I would have enough money saved to quit my job and travel the world (again).
2024 – 2026: After saying no to a lot, working multiple jobs, and saving as much as I could, I did it. I’m on the road again. I quit my job at Whole Foods after 8 years on April 17, 2026. I write this now from my new home base in Switzerland. I’m entering this next chapter with so much wisdom, financial responsibility, and a fire so fierce within me to get it right this time.
I overcame the adversity of moving out at 18 with zero financial help, a life-altering pandemic, and everything that has contributed to this path not being as linear as I’d hoped it would. That includes losing all of my original photos from 2016 to 2020.
But if not for taking the long way around the barn, I wouldn’t have the clarity and the appreciation for this opportunity I have now. And even if I knew it would take me this long, to be sitting here on my computer writing beneath the mountains that begin the Alps, I would do it 10x over again, again, and again.
What is What Do You Sea?
What Do You Sea came from a small spark of creativity while I was brainstorming blog names in my high school library.
It’s the best $11 I ever spent.
Despite being established before my passport was stamped, it’s an ode to the way travel shaped me from the very beginning: challenging my beliefs and how I saw the world.
The way I started traveling was far from the status quo, or actually, what’s common for my fellow Americans. While most spend a whirlwind two weeks in Europe. Two days there. Three days here. I started slowly. Six weeks in the same country, staying in the same accommodation, shopping at local grocery stores, and sticking around until my surroundings were familiar.
Those weeks shaped the guiding principles of my travels and, therefore, what you’ll find on my blog.
All of my guides are written and curated by me, and they’re based on my own boots-on-the-ground experiences around the world. You won’t find guides to places I’ve never visited, and I don’t write guides for the masses.
Before my hard drive broke and I lost all my photos, all of the images on What Do You Sea were my own. Since then, I’ve had to use stock images to fill in the blanks, but I am actively revisiting places to have my own photos again. After travel, photography is another one of my biggest passions, and thankfully, the two are very complementary.
I travel not to see how many countries I can check off, but to see how deeply I can know a place that isn’t home. Don’t be surprised to find me returning to Scotland for a second time this summer, or Okinawa for a third, to see some of the islands I missed and indulge in some surfing.
My dad is a chef, and I can tell you that our family’s love for food does not skip a generation. After working as a food writer in Dallas for years, I rarely ever have bad meals, and I will go out of my way for a plate of tacos with just the right amount of grease and a properly made cappuccino.
I’m the kind of traveler who would rather spend my money on a local B&B and experiences rather than a fancy hotel chain with Egyptian cotton sheets. I value authentic experiences and being in places long enough to know it, breathe it, and fall in love with it.
I don’t want you to quit your job to travel as I did, or sell you a course on how to do it. Instead, my goal is to use my mistakes, mishaps, and experiences on the road to create guides that you can use to make the most of your travel experiences in whatever form they take— be it a year-long backpacking trip in Southeast Asia, a city break in the United Kingdom, or a week-long surf trip in turquoise waters.
Traveling slowly and responsibly is the best way to experience the world, and that core principle is intertwined in everything I do here on What Do You Sea, and always will be.
Thank you for being here and joining this community of travelers. I hope there is a guide or a photo here that will give you the spark you need to get curious or book that flight you’ve always dreamed of.
If you’re interested in following my adventures in semi-real time, the best place to do that is on Instagram, find me at @aarenprody, or join my email list (which includes a sweet little something as a thank you). There is a wee sign-up box at the bottom of this page if you’re interested.
If you’re interested in supporting me further, I can usually be bribed with a steaming bowl of pho, but a perfectly pulled espresso will do just fine. Those can be sent via my Ko-Fi page.
