Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello freedom seekers
, I am back in your ears after
three amazing months in NewZealand.
I have so many stories to shareabout our first experience
living in a van for that long.
I also learned so much about mymarriage with Jared after
spending so much time togetherin such a close and confined
(00:27):
space.
I have a lot of feedback onwhat it's like to travel to New
Zealand.
Whether you're a digital nomador just adventurer, there is so
much to know about those twoislands that make up this
amazing country.
We also spent a week at KiwiBurn, so there is lots to unpack
.
I feel like I'm going to havecontent now for months and I'm
(00:49):
really keen to capture it allbefore I lose it.
So definitely watch out formore episodes that are going to
be dropping soon about my timein New Zealand.
If you have any questions, feelfree to drop them in the
comments or send me a DM onInstagram.
I am so happy to chat and givean honest review of what we
thought about those three monthsaway, but today I wanted to
(01:10):
talk about a major shift that'sbeen happening for me that
really started on the trip, asit relates to travel, as it
relates to seeing the world asit relates to truly leveraging
the freedom that I've worked sohard to earn.
If you've been following myjourney for a while now, you
know that I have been chasingand living a freedom lifestyle
(01:31):
for close to a decade.
The kind of lifestyle where,yeah, I get to choose where I
work, when I work, who I workwith and sometimes if I work at
all.
You know I have said no to thenine to five life, I've said yes
to one way tickets and I'vebuilt a life where my days often
feels like a choose your ownadventure novel.
But here's the thing that theydon't always tell you about
(01:54):
freedom Once you have it like,truly have it, there's a moment
that you start asking what now?
What is all of this freedom for?
But now, what is all of thisfreedom for?
Yes, having the option to doback-to-back summers, like we
just did for the sixth winter ina row, is so sick.
Something has started to shiftfor me.
I no longer feel like I justwant freedom from work or
(02:17):
freedom from structure orfreedom from other people's
rules, but I'm really craving afreedom to contribute, a freedom
to give back for my life, tohave more meaning With the life
that I live.
Now I have capacity to giveback.
For years I've been trying todo so through donating a
percentage of my income.
(02:37):
I think once I achievedfinancial freedom and had excess
, that was kind of the firststep for me donating to various
charities, partaking incampaigns like Giving Tuesday.
Every year I've been lookingback on all of the flights that
I have gone on and offsettingall of them through really cool
carbon capture projects that youcan find on lessca.
(02:58):
But more and more I've beenfeeling like I want to have more
of an impact and I want to takemore of a hands-on approach to
how I give back.
Not only do I want to have moreof an impact and I want to take
more of a hands-on approach tohow I give back.
Not only do I want to donate mymoney, but now I kind of want
to donate my time and really Ifeel like I want my life to have
some sort of legacy that Ileave behind, like I'm really
(03:19):
craving a very long-term projectthat I can spend my lifetime
building and contributingtowards.
That really makes a difference.
That really lives past me, andso that is something that has
been on my mind, and on the tripvery early on I realized that
(03:39):
Jared was kind of having thesefeelings too.
When you go on many eight hour,10 hour day hikes or road trips
in the van, you have a lot oftime to talk.
And Jared and I that isprobably our core strength in
our relationship iscommunication.
We're the type of couple thatif we're in a fight we will stay
(04:02):
up literally all night hashingit out until we both come out on
the other end of it Clear,aligned.
It all makes sense, the lessonsare uncovered, we have a path
forward and we are down to putin that time.
So we love to chit chat, welove to introspect, we love to
reflect, we love to strategizeand we love to do it together.
(04:24):
So, naturally, on these trips,on these walks, on these hikes
that we were doing in NewZealand, within the first month
we already started to reallythink about okay, what do we
want this year to look like?
We started the trip on I thinkour flight was December 26th.
So we really kicked off the newyear with this adventure, and
one of the resources that weused to help plan our year was
(04:48):
Year Compass.
If you haven't heard of it,please search it on the internet
.
It's so cool.
It's a free resource.
I can't believe it was free,but we both went through the
Year Compass structure step bystep, and learned so much about
what is going to make this yeara win for each of us, and one of
(05:09):
the big themes was that givingback was becoming more and more
important to each of us andfeeling like it was an era of
our life where we weren't reallyhitting the mark.
We weren't satisfied by what wewere already contributing, and
so, like a month into the tripin New Zealand, we were already
starting to get crystal clear onour dreams, on our vision.
(05:30):
We joke that we are coming homewith a 10 year plan for our
lives and we kind of are, andwithout revealing too much
because all still very earlystage, there's definitely some
things that we know we want todouble down on.
If you follow us, you knowwe've launched the brand
conscious kitties and we've beenrunning retreats under that
brand, and so that is definitelysomething that we really want
(05:50):
to double down on.
We definitely want to buildsomething that honors our love
for animals more than just thevegan diet that we're so proud
to live by.
We're thinking of maybe havingsome type of animal sanctuary,
some type of retreat center, sothat's like generally where
we're headed, I'll just say that.
But of course we don't have thespace for that.
(06:13):
We're not teed up for that.
So how can we start to make animpact now?
We know we want to be morephilanthropic, we know that we
have excess, we know that welive this very privileged life
that we've worked hard towardsto get to this point.
So what can we start doing now?
We're about a third into thetrip and we figured what can we
(06:35):
do in New Zealand to startstepping into that philanthropic
identity.
Which brings me to today'sepisode, and I'm going to bring
you behind the scenes of ourvery first Workaway experience.
If you are not familiar withWorkaway, this is a global
platform that connects travelerswith hosts who have farms, eco
(06:55):
projects, nonprofits who willtypically offer food,
accommodation and hands-onlearning experiences about
sustainable agriculture and farmlife in exchange for you
volunteering X amount of hoursper day.
If you're not familiar withWorkaway, you might be familiar
(07:15):
with the term WOOFing, whichstands for Worldwide
Opportunities on Organic Farms.
That is also something wediscovered was very popular in
New Zealand.
That people were doing, and itreally gives you a chance to
live like the day-to-day life ofwhat a small scale farmer would
be like.
So most woofing hosts.
They actually require no priorexperience, just a willingness
(07:39):
for you to get your handsdirtyingness, to Learn.
And, like I said, it was verypopular among New Zealand
travelers of all ages, and thatis how we discovered the
Workaway site.
So we were thinking about whatcould we do here.
We were meeting other peoplewho were woofing around the
country.
We thought that sounded reallyinteresting.
(08:00):
Of course, we don't have anycontacts for organic eco farms
in New Zealand, despite lovingthe idea of meeting someone that
has that type of space.
So we went on the website andwe found a posting that
literally felt like it was madefor us.
It was an animal sanctuary andyoga retreat center that was
(08:21):
looking for volunteers.
As soon as we saw that posting,we thought, okay, this would be
such an incredible opportunityfor us to learn from someone who
is truly living our dream life,while also stepping into that
identity.
Now, giving back to New Zealand,let's do this.
We immediately signed up forwork away memberships.
It is a fee that you pay, so anannual membership for one
(08:44):
person is 59 US dollars, andthen you can sign up as a couple
, which is what we did, and thatwas 69 US dollars.
I have since signed up for thereferral program because I'm
like I'm going to be tellingeverybody about this now.
So if you click the link in theshow notes, that actually gives
you three free additionalmonths if you decide you want to
sign up yourself.
And really, other than having aminimum age of being 18 years
(09:08):
old to volunteer, in mostcountries they really welcome
all global travelers whogenuinely want to see the world
while also contributing and alsogiving back to the places that
they visit.
So it felt like it was checkinga lot of box for us giving back
to New Zealand, a country thatwe were already obsessed with,
to learning from people who areessentially living our dream
(09:30):
life animal sanctuary andretreat center, check, check and
three, really stepping intothat philanthropic identity
being able to leverage ourfreedom lifestyle for good.
So we found the listing, wecreated accounts and now they
had to select us.
We found out that they actuallyget hundreds of applications
every single month.
(09:51):
What they said, what reallystood out about us, was one we
put as a subject line you areliving our dream life.
I thought that would really gettheir attention.
But then also we talked to themabout some of the skills that
we had outside of, like hands-onfarming, because, well, we
didn't really have anyexperience.
I have a few potted plants inmy house, one privileged cat,
(10:13):
but that's really our experiencewith this, other than the fact
that we've been running retreats.
We've been using the internetto market our retreats, building
a brand, social media, buildingbusinesses as digital nomads,
and so it turns out that thosebusiness and digital skills we
mentioned were actually whatcaptured their attention,
because they, coincidentally,were thinking about hosting
(10:35):
their very first conference, andso they thought that, in
addition to us helping out onthe farm, we could also
volunteer by doing a trade withour digital skills, for some of
the things that they werethinking to market and promote
their new conference.
So they I think they took like24 hours or 48 hours for them to
(10:55):
reply to us.
We'd actually applied to threedifferent farms.
One told us, no, they weretotally booked.
The other completely ghosted us, and this one, which was our
first choice, said, hey, yeah,we can take you on the dates
that you need.
You know, let's move forward.
And I was thinking, oh my gosh,I have so many questions, I
don't even know how this works.
(11:17):
And, coincidentally, we wereonly one hour away from the
location of this farm.
We were on the north side of theSouth Island, we were in Nelson
.
We thought we were going to bespending weeks wing surfing and
there was no wind.
So we were actually just likestuck in this town.
(11:38):
Every day we would get amessage saying, oh no, the
wind's not good enough for youto go out today.
And we were just gettingincreasingly more disappointed.
We joined a Pilates studio, wejoined a coworking space.
We were trying to make the mostof this dead week and in this
time is when we were like, okay,let's get started with our work
away application.
So that's kind of where we werephysically and mentally.
(12:01):
And then the location of thisfarm was an hour away, in an
area called Motueka,specifically the Motueka Valley.
I'm definitely butchering thatname, like I butcher a lot of
the New Zealand cities and namesand yeah, slang that they have,
which, yeah, they have so muchfun slang.
I will be talking about all ofthat in an episode coming out
(12:22):
soon and just how cool the localKiwis are.
But yeah, we were an hour or soaway, so we just said, hey,
we're pretty close.
Can we actually come by andjust have a conversation in
person, make sure we're a goodfit right?
If we're going to be nowrearranging our trip to spend
almost a month there, I kind ofjust wanted to make sure this
was legit right.
So they agreed to meet us andfrom that very first visit we
(12:46):
connected immediately.
We shared lots of laughs.
We loved hearing about theirmission and their vision for the
space that they had created.
The land that they were on ithad previously been used as a
cigarette farm for cigaretteproduction, so it was a very
unique building and use of thespace that, of course, they had
(13:07):
transformed to an animalsanctuary retreat center.
It was so beautiful hugeorchards of fruit and various
vegetable gardens.
It was amazing.
And so we had that very firstvisit.
We got a good feeling about theexperience.
They got a good feeling and agood read on us, so we agreed
that we would come back in a fewweeks and start our
(13:29):
volunteering.
This particular place had a fewother requirements for us.
That apparently isn't standard,but I thought I would just be
up front For them.
They required us to bevegetarian, which was easy.
We were vegan.
I think that has a lot to dowith the fact that they were an
animal sanctuary.
They did not have the animalsto exploit them.
(13:50):
Their chickens were laying eggs, but they weren't even eating
them.
One of my duties was to gocollect the eggs each day and
put them in a fridge that theywould then just donate to
different people people theywould go visit.
They would bring a carton ofeggs.
So they wereists.
They really were walking thetalk and they expected us not to
(14:11):
be bringing any animal productsor meat products in their house
, which was no problem.
They also followed a verystrict yogi diet.
They requested no onions, nomushrooms and no garlic be
brought into the house as well.
That was was interesting.
I hadn't heard about thatbefore, but it's like one of
those things once you know, youkind of see it everywhere.
(14:32):
I've been noticing all theseitems in grocery stores that'll
say up front oh, no garlic or noonion.
So I guess this is a thing also.
We were up for that.
And then they said no drugs oralcohol was permitted on the
site, so none of these wereissues for that.
And then they said no drugs oralcohol was permitted on the
site, so none of these wereissues for us.
They also expected us tovolunteer for five hours a day
(14:53):
and then, every five days wevolunteered, we would get two
days off.
They were very flexible interms of which hours we worked.
They had certain tasks that hadto be done at a certain time
each day, like the goats had tobe fed at a certain time,
certain vegetables in the gardenhad to be watered at certain
times, certain plants had to bewatered at a certain time.
(15:13):
They had a weekly yoga class wehelped them prepare for.
So of course there was somefixed hours, but for the most
part they were very chill.
I did not feel micromanaged.
I didn't feel like they werevery chill.
I did not feel micromanaged.
I didn't feel like they weretracking me.
But again, being fullytransparent, we heard that that
is not necessarily the norm.
We met other work away woofers,volunteers who had volunteered
(15:39):
at true farms where they wereproducing product for commercial
activity, and they would sayit's very common for you to be
up at 5am working quite hard,and they were really farms that
were relying on volunteers fortheir operations.
This place you just felt likeyou were a bonus resource and
(16:00):
support, like they were finewithout us, but with us there
they could do more things thanthey could usually do, so that
felt really good.
We were provided accommodationsand food for volunteering, so
it was more of an exchange thana true just volunteering of our
time, and the accommodationswere amazing.
(16:23):
So they had their own home.
But then on the property theyhad what they called the barn,
which was a large barn with anupstairs loft, which is where
our bedroom was.
The bedroom wasn't anythingfancy, honestly, just a couple
mattresses on the floor withsome fans on the floor and a
small desk in the space, andthat was kind of it.
(16:45):
But the rest of the barn wasgorgeous.
We had our own little kitchen.
It was also the space where theyoga studio was, so there was a
full yoga room in there wherethe woman who hosted us hosted
her weekly yoga class.
The barn was just surrounded byluscious potted plants, hanging
vines, cozy floor, cushions,crystals, statues.
(17:08):
They had uplifting mantraspainted all over the walls and
tons of sunlight, large windows,a very serene place, I will say
.
There was not a proper toilet,so we got very familiar with
composting toilets while we werethere and one of our jobs was,
(17:29):
every couple of days, toactually clean out the
composting toilet, and when Isay our job, it was Jared's job.
I said I'm going to water theplants and you take that one,
babe, and he obliged.
So that was cool.
Those were kind of theaccommodations that they put us
in.
Very much had our own separatespace.
(17:49):
The next would be the food, andso we often get questions is how
does the meals work?
If they are providing meals, isit fancy?
Breakfast was super simple.
They essentially provided uswith a huge bag of quick dry
oats and then we could haveunlimited fruit from their
(18:10):
orchard.
So I'll talk a little bit aboutwhat types of food they were
producing.
But every morning I had freshapples and fresh plums and some
blueberries available to me asmuch as I wanted, which was so
yummy.
And she also taught us how tomake our own oat milk, which we
had never done before.
So every morning we would startthe day in the barn, just Jared
and I.
(18:30):
We would have our simplebreakfast with some peanut
butter in our oatmeal and somesimple coffee with some oat milk
, and that was the start of theday.
Before we would meet up withthem and really start to do our
chores, we would break togetherfor lunch and we would have one
shared meal with them over lunch.
Jared actually took on makingthe lunch for everyone most days
(18:55):
.
It was one of his hours that heused each day, which was pretty
cool, and then pretty much wedid dinner on our own.
Again, feel free to takeanything you want from the
garden and they would have a tonof like dried lentils and beans
and some spices that we coulduse and we could just make food
in our barn, which was supersimple and easy.
(19:16):
We were the only volunteersthere for most of our stay, but
then at the very end weoverlapped for one weekend with
the incoming volunteers and weactually got to train the next
volunteers who are coming in.
So that was kind of fun and itwas a really nice social way to
end, where we were all in thebarn together making meals.
(19:36):
The four volunteers the othertwo who came in were also
Canadian, which was a funcoincidence.
They didn't know each other,they were both just also
volunteering.
So we had a lot of things incommon.
We got to talk about life inCanada and we were actually all
from British Columbia.
So special, very, very special,and we still follow each other
(19:56):
on social media to this day.
So that was how the food worked.
And now our chores.
So what were we actually doing?
My favorite chore that I lookedforward to every day was
feeding the animals.
They had six goats, three sheep, three chickens, two cats and
four fish the goats inparticular.
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They were such characters andthey were very pampered.
I legitimately had a 12-stepprotocol that I had to follow
every night while making themtheir dinner.
It was a ritual I lookedforward to at 5 PM every single
day, and I even posted thegraphic of the protocol that
(20:42):
they had given me on myInstagram, which is still there
on my feed, because you justhave to see it to believe it.
These goats are really livingthe VIP life and get in some
special treatment, and I was sohere for it.
I loved to do that.
Jared was doing a lot moreprojects in their garden, a lot
of like weeding, clearing areasthat they could do, more
(21:05):
planting.
She had a lot of big projectsthat required manual labor, so
Jared was a lot of like movingaround stones and going down to
the river and getting morestones and just doing manly
things, if you know.
You know we both did a lot offruit picking.
Like I said, they had anorchard with apples and plums
and kiwi trees, blueberry bushes, grape vines.
(21:28):
Everywhere they had hazelnuttrees, a full vegetable garden.
They had so much food that theywere producing.
It was incredible they had beenin that property for at least
20 years.
I think I got that right.
So lots of food, lots of fruitpicking, lots of cleaning of the
space, various special projects, and then once a week she
(21:51):
hosted a yoga class.
So we were helping clean thespace, welcome the guests, doing
some customer service.
We got to attend the weeklyyoga class, which was really
nice.
And then, of course, there wasthe conference, which was why we
were hired, where they reallywanted us to help them get ready
to put on this conference andmarket it.
(22:12):
I helped him build his LinkedInpage for the first time, create
a bunch of content for hisFacebook page.
I was interacting with theguest speakers.
He had dozens of amazingspeakers from around the world.
I was sending out mass emailsto reporters, reaching out to
local universities to getstudents to attend, updating the
(22:33):
website, coding various things.
So I was doing quite a bit.
The conference was called thePost-Capitalist New Zealand
Conference.
It actually took place just acouple of days ago, which is fun
.
I had a virtual ticket and gotto watch it all come to life and
we were texting and saying goodluck, you got this so cool to
(22:53):
finally see it.
So I played a big role in thatand, to be honest, it was
probably my least favorite partof my work.
That really felt more like ajob versus an exchange, where I
was really learning new skillsthat I got to take into my life.
I was more just doing work Ishould probably get paid for is
how it felt.
So I kind of resented thosehours of the day where I had to
(23:15):
be on my laptop.
I mean, their outside was justso fabulous and amazing and it
was summer in New Zealand.
All I wanted to do was beoutside with the animals, but
that was really what they neededme to do and so, yeah, I was
also very efficient at my tasks.
So I'm like I can't do this forfive hours a day.
If you give me what you want toget done, I can do this in an
(23:38):
hour.
To put it in perspective, ourhosts the man he was in his
eighties putting on theconference.
She was a bit younger.
She was originally from Israel.
He was born and raised in NewZealand.
They were a couple running theplace, so I was a little bit
more efficient on my computerthan him, let's just say that.
And so you know we found ourflow.
They were very nice with us,but I did have to put in like
(23:59):
some slight boundaries andawkward conversations here and
there to be like, no, I can'tjust sit in your office with you
for five hours and that be myentire shift, because I will
literally go crazy but give meall the tasks and watch how
quickly I can get stuff done.
So he got it and he understoodit and we had an amazing
(24:19):
relationship.
I think these people will be inour lives for, hopefully, our
life, and I intend to go back toNew Zealand and volunteer with
them again and I can imagine afuture where they come to Canada
and are part of our retreatsand some of the work that she's
doing and the mission that shehas in her message.
So, amazing relationship.
They're very generous with us.
(24:40):
She taught me how to bake bread, which became one of the weekly
tasks that I had to do, and itwas such a great fit.
We extended our time, I thinkfive extra nights, because we
weren't totally ready to leavewhen we were supposed to and
there was just still more to bedone.
And having this opportunity tohelp train the next volunteers
(25:01):
worked out really well, so itwas fabulous.
I think we got very lucky withour first experience.
There was also a lot of freetime.
The farm was a five minute walkto the river, so in between our
shifts we would take breaks, ifit was really hot, go down to
the river, have a quick dip.
They had bikes so we would gofor bike rides.
(25:22):
They were in a very remote area.
That was a 30 minute drive toany grocery store and we didn't
have a car for this.
We didn't have our van, so wewould actually bike around to
all the neighbor's farms whowould have different offerings.
It was amazing.
I've never seen this before,but just imagine people just at
(25:44):
the end of their driveway havinga fruit stand and a vegetable
stand promoting what they sell,and a lot of it was by donation
or just by the honor system.
They would have a cash box andsay, you know, $2 for a pepper
and just hope that you put themoney in there, or I would say
by koha, which who knows if I'mpronouncing that right but that
means donation in the Maorilanguage, which was very
(26:07):
prevalent in New Zealand,something I was super impressed
by.
So we would do that on our freetime bike around.
We were in rolling valleys withbeautiful mountains.
We did some hikes in the area.
We would go and use the yogaspace and just stretch.
She had really high-end yogaprops that we would enjoy every
single night or just chill andread their cat.
(26:32):
One of them, simba, slept withme every single night, including
the first night we arrived.
He just came right into the bedand was like this is a cat lady
.
I can sense this from her andI'm going to be her cat for this
period.
A cat lady I can sense thisfrom her and I'm going to be her
cat for this period.
And I slept with him everysingle night.
I miss him.
He's so cute.
So yeah, a lot of relaxing time.
(26:53):
I had amazing sleeps, the bestsleeps not only of the trip, but
literally of my life.
I have an aura ring now and Igot a 96 readiness score two
weeks in a row.
I actually just realized myaura ring is not on.
I went to charge it thismorning and didn't put it back
on.
So if you're watching this onYouTube or on Spotify.
(27:14):
I swear I do have an aura ring,it's just charging.
So, yeah, my body loved it.
I felt amazing, being outside,working in the garden, waking
with the sun, walking barefootin the yard every single morning
, meditating, doing yoga.
I feel so blessed that this wasour very first workaway
experience and our very firsttime volunteering abroad,
(27:35):
because I do know that when itcomes to somebody who wants to
start to give back and start todo volunteer traveling, that it
can be a bit tricky.
I mean, I am familiar with theconcept of white saviorism,
which is that idea thatwell-intentioned white people
position themselves as theserescuers of non-white
(27:58):
communities which can oftencreate unintended harm, and all
these power imbalances.
I'm aware of this.
I've also heard of so-calledvolunteer programs that operate
more like fundraising scams,right Instead of genuine
nonprofits, where they havethese really high volunteer fees
and are just like funnelingthat into themselves and only a
(28:19):
fraction of the cash goes intothe programs.
As an animal lover, I have to beespecially cautious with
programs that promise to rescueor rehabilitate exotic wildlife
or farm animals and positionthemselves as sanctuaries, but
really they're just facilitiesthat mistreat or exploit animals
for photo ops right?
(28:39):
It's so sad that we live in aworld where, if you have finally
gotten to a point where youhave excess time, desire,
passion, resources and you wantto give back, that you have to
be so discerning in terms ofwhere you give your time and
make sure that it's legitimate.
I find that really, really sadthat that's the reality of the
(29:01):
world, but I think more of usleaning towards that idea of
giving back and sharing ourexcess and not just making it
all about us and soindividualistic, has got to be a
step forward.
Right, that's got to be a stepin the right direction.
I have a long road ahead of meto learn about what this all
(29:22):
means and how I do thissustainably and safely and
responsibly and effectively.
Effective altruism is reallyimportant to me and it's going
to require a lot of effortbecause of the world we live in
today.
But Workaway felt like a reallyamazing first step to feeling
what it would be like to notonly go and enjoy amazing place
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in the world, but also find away to give back and actually be
part of the community in a morehands-on way.
I am really curious about whatis in the future and how I can
travel with purpose, participatein regenerative tourism,
volunteer abroad.
Use my extra freedom to leaveplaces a little bit better when
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I visit.
Jared and I are alreadystarting to think about our 10
year anniversary is next summerand how I think we want to do a
volunteer trip instead of justlike another big trip for us.
I think I love the idea ofvolunteering for maybe two to
three weeks and then vacationingfor one to two weeks after that
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.
I think that could be reallygreat and cool balance.
So stay tuned for more of that.
If you have any experience withvolunteering abroad highs, the
lows, the scams, the wins, anytips for what to look for I
would love to hear it.
You can find me on Instagram atsamlaliberty, and until next
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time, freedom seekers, enjoyyour freedom.