What do you do when you get dumped at the altar? You quit your job, sell your car, give up the house and book a one-way trip to anywhere.
That’s what the once heartbroken, Katy Colins, did and now she’s living out her childhood dreams.
The former publicist for Manchester Airport in the UK has successfully PR’d her way onto the front page of a number of frequented publications thanks to her tragic tale which she transformed into a happy ending.
Let’s start at the beginning.
Colins was in her twenties, writing about travel on a daily basis but barely taking holidays herself. This didn’t bother her so much because she was on path to marry a man she believed to be ‘the one’.
Everything was like a dream, until she was abandoned at the altar. Eek.
While some would crawl into a hole and hope the pain vanishes over time, Colins decided to do what all therapists advise against at a time of heartbreak – she made MAJOR changes.
She quit her job, sold her house and she gave up her car. She used the cash to book a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia where she intended to backpack her around Thailand, India and Nepal.
Using her writing and marketing skills, she decided to turn her adventure into one she could promote to other travellers. She started a blog which grew in popularity and paved the way for her to write her own novel.
“I started writing a few chapters, not fully aware that they would be the start of a novel, but mostly as a way to clear my head.”
Katy Colins
“Although I was experiencing things that I would never have imagined seeing, such as the Taj Mahal and trekking through the Himalayas, I was still working through the feelings that I wouldn’t be making wedding scrapbooks or be living the married life – well not just yet at least.
“I began to think “what if you were given a second chance to find yourself?””
She continued, saying her former fiance’s decision to leave her at the altar was a “wake-up call”.
“I had a good job, a lovely house and lived a comfortable lifestyle but it lacked adventure,” she said.
“That is something I hoped travelling half-way around the world on my own would give me, and luckily it paid off.
“I have climbed an active volcano in Chile, slept in a Thai jungle, got covered in Holi powder in India, skydived in France and even taken a flight past Mount Everest.”