Travel blogging is becoming a trend. So, I’m going to be frank. I don’t expect anyone to read this blog because there are millions of talented travel writers and photographers that should be read. I’m putting it into the world because I need to practice the skill that I plan to exercise professionally one day and make my experiences known. Maybe that’ll happen once a year, maybe it’ll happen once a month. We will just have to wait and see.

I fell in love with travel because it gave me a chance to play one of my favorite games, make-believe. A new destination turns ripped jeans into a 60s vibe and the way my smile exposes too many teeth makes me feel sexy in ways that I don’t when I am at home. I’m sure it’s I taste the freedom of adulthood.

This game of pretending became addictive because it didn’t end. Three days in a new city led to a new Makenna with excentric dreams and whirlwind love stories to write endless diary entries about. And it was all mine. Those experiences made me grow and shift my perspective, but they also got to be personal. I didn’t share them with anyone I’d see again and no one could take them or invalidate them. It didn’t matter whether home understood the importance of the man I met on the metro in DC or the sweet boy who made me smile in Charleston because I did. I guess in a way it made me feel significant in a world that usually has the opposite effect. It made moments substantial in a life that doesn’t stop moving.

Travel is about the place, sure. But, I find more value in the people I meet in that place. I’ve fought for so long to write about the different shops, streets and food joints I tried, but none if it ever seemed to spark passion. So, I’m going to write about the place in a different way now, the way that I know how. I’ll write about what makes me cry on my plane ride home and smile in the midst of a silent disco because that’s what I know best.

So, welcome to Coffee Run. It was meant for something else, but I guess that’s just how life goes sometimes. If you’re reading this, I hope you can relate to some of the love that I’ve felt during my time away from my own bed.