Talparo, Trinidad
Hay-lo, I’m Stacia! I’m an avid traveller, writer, videographer, and educator from the beautiful twin-island Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. A mouthful, I know! How exactly did I wind up dabbling in all these? Let’s rewind some 20 odd (oh, all right, 30-ish 😉 ) years into the past!
As a young girl I had the strangest notion that the fundamental difference between myself and everyone else was that half of me was made, not of organs, cells and muscles, but of words. Premature, I thought language filled the void left by my forfeiting Time’s work. I felt so alive when I covered a page with my left-handed scrawl, and when I listened to my mother reciting the local “Krick Krack Monkey” folk tales. Soon, everything I surveyed was with a sense of exhilaration and of creative possession.
I had an insatiable curiosity about the rest of the world! I never left home without the essentials: pen, paper and camera. I even attempted to run away once. A few months after moving to the countryside of Talparo (tagged above) – and far away from the company of cousins with whom I had lived for the first few years of my life – I embarked on my first “walkabout”. Apparently, at the ripe “old” age of 2, I had wits enough to “pack” a few essentials and wander out my yard, then unfenced as my parents were slowly building. Lamentably, my wandering plans were soon thwarted by a neighbour who walked “de new people chile” (i.e. “the new neighbour’s child” in local parlance) wailing back home. When asked where I was trying to go I sniffled, “Nana”, mangling my cousin Ayanna’s name in my tongue-tied toddler vernacular.
But as my pal, Oliver, so rightly stated: “a mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.” Henceforth, my time was spent sitting on my porch dreaming of “elsewhere.” As a teenager, I researched trips and created itineraries that I printed and saved in a “memory box.” Now, I have graduated from a tattered storage box to a neat “Travel” folder in my Gmail account. As an adult, I have lived in 3 metropolises (not enough!), travelled to 3 continents (DEFINITELY not enough!), and plans to shape a location-independent lifestyle are a-hatchin’! 😛
Armed with the skills acquired from reading for a C.C. in Film Production, B.A in Comparative Literature and an M.F.A in Creative Writing & Literary Journalism, added to years of publishing, writing and teaching experience, I dream of living and working – for 3 – 4 months – on each continent over the next few years and hopefully BEYOND! In the process, I hope to discover the answers to the questions: “WHO AM I?” and “WHY AM I HERE?” And with so few accounts written by black female travellers who are not from the U.S, Canada, Australia or the U.K, I thought I would add my voice to that sweet wandering choir!
Perhaps, when I walked out of my yard all those years ago and looked right, the trace leading to a dead end and the impenetrable rainforest, and to the left where it seemed to twist for miles, I became determined to explore, record and describe what I saw along the latter route. HOW am I going to achieve this lofty goal? I haven’t the foggiest idea, but I’ve made a promise to myself to see it through — or, at least, try! I would LOVE for you to join me on this wild and crazy ride! AND assist you in turning the dreams YOU have on paper into the journeys and passages of a lifetime!
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CONTACT me with questions about how I can help you start your own adventure, or with ways you can assist me with mine! As we say in sweet Trinbago – “all ah we is ONE FAMILY!”
WELCOME! Let’s move from VISION to VOYAGE TOGETHER! 😀