Let us get one thing straight right out of the gate. If you think I have been out here living some glamorous, globe-trotting influencer fantasy, you are cute. But you are dead wrong.
For people who rarely leave their own state, my recent passport stamps might look impressive. Brazil. Spain. London. Paris. Dubai. “Wow, she’s been everywhere!” Yeah, well, news flash: I have not. Not really. These trips happened in the era my body decided to betray me and park me in a wheelchair.
There was no carefree frolicking through exotic streets. No sexy bikini photo shoots with golden-hour lighting and a cocktail in hand (sad!). Most of the time I was either hooked up to treatments or too exhausted to do anything but stare at clinic walls.
Brazil and Spain? Those were not vacations. They were medical missions. Spiritual awakening. Healing quests. I traded sandy beaches and nightlife for IV drips, experimental protocols, and the sterile smell of hope. I saw the inside of healing centers far more than I saw the actual countries. The world outside my treatment room might as well have been a postcard.
But here is the provocative part most “wellness girlies” will never admit: even when your body is falling apart, your appetite for life (and flavor) does not die. I refused to be that sad girl. I did not want to just order chicken tenders.. Especially not in some of the most delicious countries on Earth.
When I was on Spain’s stunning coastline, I was mostly inside of a wellness treatment, but I was not playing it safe. I dove straight into the deep end — squid ink paella that turned my teeth and tongue midnight black, sardine pizza that made more than a few locals raise an eyebrow. I wanted the real Spain, not the sanitized tourist version. Same energy in France: I devoured crusty, glyphosate-free bread finally and happily slurped down garlicky escargot.
I do not clutch my pearls or wrinkle my nose at “weird” foreign food. That closed-minded attitude is for cowards who travel just to take photos and brag later. Eating like a local is how you actually touch the culture. It is intimate. It is sensual. It is one of the few ways a broken body can still fully say “yes” to the world.
Dubai was a completely different beast. That trip was not about healing — it was about living dangerously, even if my version of danger looked different. I have this “uncle” who has powerful friends in the Emirates. So off I went. I stood (well, sat) in front of the Burj Khalifa like a proper tourist. I felt unworthy beneath all that glittering excess. And yes, I rode a camel through the desert — an experience that was equal parts magical and chaotic. My sitting balance was trash at the time. My father had to squeeze in behind me. He was like some kind of reluctant bodyguard. He held me steady while the camel swayed beneath us.
Picture it: a wheelchair user, her dad, and a camel in the middle of the Arabian desert. The poor thing was carrying around 500 pounds (I was still a big girl). Not exactly the sexy desert romance novel scene, but it was unforgettable in its own ridiculous way.
The point is not that I have “seen the world.” The point is that I have clawed my way into experiences most people in my condition would never dare attempt. I have eaten the strange foods. I have ridden the camels. I have stared down some of the most beautiful skylines on Earth. Meanwhile, my body screamed at me to stay in bed.
I am not sharing this for sympathy. I am sharing it because I am sick of the sanitized, filtered version of disabled travel people expect. I may have had to get help getting into the plane but in all of my travels— I did not go gently. I went hungry for flavor, for views, for stories — even when it hurt. Even when it was messy. Even when I had to be held upright on a damn camel.
So yeah, I have been places. But not in the way you think. So here I am… unapologetically eating squid ink. While half-broken might not be as interesting as the bikini-on-the-beach photograph, it is me… part of my story.
Kat’s Musings 