Hiiii! 👋🏼 Seric here (pronounced: “Eric” with an “S” in front) — simpler than it might look at first. 😛

And that’s it! Now that we’ve got the formalities out of the way, let’s dive in shall we?

Jk, lemme get ch’all some more 🥩 meat 🥩 to chew on.

I am a California-born and It’s-Complicated-raised photographer, blogger and one of the co-founders of Piriography. I’m a Spotify junkie and in all seriousness would probably die if for some reason (god forbid) Spotify crashed and all my playlists were to disappear 🫠 I also love to read; mostly historical and cultural bits; the more boring the better! I enjoy learning new languages and speak both English and Spanish, with fragments of French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch, and probably several others floating around in the chasm that is my skull. Oh! And, with running the risk of being Captain Obvious, I also love travel! (but who doesn’t??)

The bubblings of the full boil to come

My interest in traveling started when I was about 6 years old. A fascination (some might even call obsession) bloomed for Canada after coming across it on one of my first-ever encounters with a map — still absolutely love maps by the way! It sat there right above my little head. Unbelievably massive and seemingly not so far away! Oh, and they also speak French there? What’s that sound like? The more I learned, the more I was enamored.

To build on the long love and interest in travel sentiment, my family did move around a lot and was fairly “nomadic” growing up so-to-speak, but it wasn’t always the fun kind. A lot of times, it took more the form of the poor and/or emotionally unhinged and not-fun kind. And if that sounds crazy to you, that’s because it was. But with some fun roadtrips across the country sprinkled in there over those early years, there were definitely good experiences mixed in there too! I wouldn’t end up visiting Canada (and leaving the country) for the first time until I was 14 years old.

From there, my experiences within the states, and those mysteries of my homeland’s neighbor to the north went on to flower into just this big ol’ garden of immense intrigue for the world outside. Particularly the Americas and its unique landscapes and social-scapes. For most of my life it all sat out of reach, only to be admired from afar. 🌎

However, the winds of change truly came to break at the same time as I think most of us did, The Pandemic.

*Adult life enters the chat*

I went to university for Digital Arts & Design where I earned my bachelor’s degree in such. After a few years of working in the field as a Graphic Designer, I ended up transitioning into Project Management, which I have been doing ever since!

I was working in an office at the time, and on vacation in Puerto Rico with my partner Alex (Learn More about Alex), when that first government shutdown stuck. I was — let’s call it “stranded”— in Puerto Rico for an extra week as flights were cancelled and curfews were enforced (an extra week in a Caribbean paradise? What a nightmare, I know!).

That also meant an extra week that I couldn’t get back to work (also tragic!!). However, the time did come that I would return to the mainland and in that week’s time, my in-office job very quickly became a completely remote position. At first for 2 weeks, then for a month, then for 2 months, and finally — indefinitely.

I personally was thrilled about this and I feel no shame in saying that. In-office jobs, for me, are for the birds. 🦤

For many people, COVID-19, changed their lives and often times, not for the better. I say with survivors guilt under my breath, that I was actually one of the lucky ones. My life had changed for the better.

I have been extremely fortunate and I can’t go on not acknowledging that I am incredibly privileged to be in the position that I am in and had the opportunity to do all that I have done! (all the more reason to do something good with it!) Though it hasn’t come without its sometimes painful consequences, the chains of being imprisoned to a physical office in order to make a living have been shattered. It was an actual dream come true!

In the early days of the panini, I took to the road to escape my what was becoming a jail cell of an apartment. Alex and I crammed ourselves and some necessities into his grandmother’s SUV for 2 months and circumnavigated the lower 48, all while working at the same time! Setting up shop in McDonald’s and Starbuck’s parking lots, using Mobile Hotspots, and the occasional hotel room here and there. You name it! If there was WiFi there, we found it, and we made it work!

That was when it occurred to me: I can make this work! It was clunky and pretty bootleggy, but we were creative and resourceful. And we had learned so much! I though to myself: I can do it better next time! In the span of only a few months what was so monumentally impossible and unchangeable for me before, was now suddenly so clearly possible!

Hence, the decision had been made. 2021 had rolled around and we didn’t renew our lease within the confines of our then-apartment in Orlando, Florida. Rather instead, we resolved ourselves to take what we learned on our Trans-American roadtrip to the next level!

The official transition into Digital Nomadism

December 15, 2021 marked my first day of rendering myself effectively homeless, choosing roaming as we please over a full time residence!

First, we chucked all our crap into a shoe box of a storage unit, re-homed our cars, did the medical checkup stuff, and we were off to the races!

We made our rounds within the states, staying with friends and family to bid them adieu before setting off on our first grand adventure: South America 💚

I’ll be sure to tell you all about it in future articles!

To date, I have lived all over the United States, not just in California, but also in Florida, New York, and Hawaii (omitting my brief stints in Chicago and Dallas). I have completed my bucket list goal of visiting all 50 states in the US! I’ve been to 35+ other countries as well, covering a large swath of ground including the vast majority of the rest of America (both North and South). In South America, only having 4 countries left un-ventured: Venezuela, for extremely sad, but I think fairly self-explanatory reasons; as well as Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana — for now!

I’ve, also as of recently, wandered my way through much of Europe, where I am currently at the time of writing this, in Madrid, Spain. Leaving for us now with the whole of Africa, Antarctica, Asia, and Australia completely uncharted.

So now what?

Still so many stones left unturned, so more travel is on the horizon for sure. But already between the two of us, we have what feels like a metric f*ck ton (in scientific terms) to release into the ether both in terms of photography and our experiences as a whole.

The goal here is just to talk about it all! What all we’ve done and how we did it. Drop details on the things I have seen and places I’ve gone. The things I’ve loved (and maybe sometimes not loved), not to mention all that I’ve learned along the way. This dog’s got new tips AND tricks to share! All with hopes that it will benefit others out there who might be thinking about doing something similar, or maybe just interested!

If that sounds like you, read on, because I gotchu!