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Ruth Clark is a freelance writer, solo world traveler, artist, and teacher. Her writing focuses on mental health, travel, and authentic living, and her most recent essays have been featured in AAA and HelloGiggles. As a social content creator, she works to help nonprofits and small businesses in developing their brand and growing their audience.
Ruth earned a B.A. in English from the University of Connecticut, with minor degrees in Sociology and International Studies. In addition to freelance writing, she is an ESL teacher, hand lettering designer, and amateur photographer. When she’s not working, you can find her planning her next trip, listening to Ray LaMontagne on repeat, and writing her first memoir. With a passion for exploration and human connection, Ruth enjoys traveling the world and discovering where it is she feels most at home.
There's nothing like spontaneously leaving for the other side of the world, alone and without a plan, to teach you a thing or two.Here's what I learned after backpacking solo through Southeast Asia for three months.
When I was diagnosed with stage four endometriosis in my early 20s, I'd never heard of the disease and didn't know what it was like to be unhealthy. Managing my pain forced me to become responsible for my health in a way I'd never needed before.
The first time I ever stayed in an Airbnb, I booked a place that had zero reviews. It was a new listing in the middle of the high desert in California, and even though the owner looked sweet and kind in her photo, I booked it with a tinge of hesitation, praying that she wasn't an ax murderer.
Sometimes I want to hide that I've been in therapy for eight years. Then I think back to the time I was in a hotel room on the other side of the globe, having a complete breakdown and crying to my therapist over a laptop screen.
The taxi rumbled over the bumpy, dirt roads of Bagan as we navigated towards the train station. My stomach flip-flopped a bit as I anticipated the journey ahead-a seven-hour train ride across Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country that had made headlines for its former military dictatorship and recent ongoing genocide.
It feels hard to believe that any student who willingly paints their face to resemble dark skin and large lips and shares it on social media along with a very obvious racial slur - privately or not - would not understand the offense of such an act.
Admittedly, the last few months have been really tough ones. If we're being honest here (and we are, right?) depression and anxiety have reared their ugly heads and I've felt a bit lost. I went from the best year of my life, to some of the worst months of my life.
My siblings and I are closer than most, with our rocky childhood creating a bond in our adulthoods unlike anything else I've experienced.
It's been two and a half weeks since the election. Two and a half weeks of shock, horror, disbelief and tears. I feel as though I am grieving, mourning a breakup or a death. Being an American abroad is hard right now: it's embarrassing and painful and disheartening.
When I was trying to decide which Southeast Asian country to make my new home for a year while I taught English abroad, I thought I'd be lured in by Thailand-turquoise beaches, tourist-friendly cities, endless golden buddhas, and one-dollar green curries. So many ESL teachers end up in Thailand, and I thought I'd be one of them.