Stick shift looks good on me ❤️

Stepping into the unknown.....

I’m packing for Lisbon and leaving in a few—full butterflies in my belly.

I’m about to drive stick for the first time in 20 years, on the opposite side of the road ( I think), in a country I’ve never driven in… completely solo.

And sure, I’ve driven in the Dominican Republic, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway. I’ve had my fair share of international driving chaos.

But this combo— embarking on a nomadic adventure, stepping into the unknown, the Lisbon hills, European roads, and me behind the wheel of a manual again—feels like its own rite of passage. They don’t have many automatic vehicles there! What?

And it’s bringing me back to one of the most formative (and hilarious) moments of my life:

When I lived in Newport Beach in my early 20s, my mom bought me a $2,000 baby blue ‘69 Volkswagen Bug—stick shift.

I did not have anyone to teach me, so I taught myself.

And once I got the hang of it? I drove myself and some friends straight to San Francisco.

By the way… cruising PCH in a stick shift car is heaven on earth for sure.

If that’s not the definition of figuring it out as you go, I don’t know what is.

So no, I will not be parallel parking on a Lisbon hill, thank you very much.

But yes—I’ll be leaning all the way into this next layer of becoming.

Because sometimes expansion looks like a personal or business breakthrough…

And sometimes it looks like grinding the clutch in a Portuguese roundabout and laughing your ass off.

Stay tuned <3

Love, Light, and Prosperity,

Jenn, Untethered <3