This week my team took a small break from real life and vacationed in Da Nang, Vietnam. It might’ve lasted for only 36 hours but it was much needed.

I ate delicious cheeseburgers, danced along the streets at night, and ate popcorn at the movie theatre. I over ordered at an Italian restaurant, watched Belle fall in love with the Beast, and swam in the South China Sea, and I felt really normal for the first time in months.

This year I am stepping out of my comfort zone on an hourly basis and that is exciting and exhilarating and really fruitful. I get to adapt to new cultures, eat inedible-looking food, and explore new cities. But sometimes I need moments where I can feel like a normal, twenty-something adult.

I need to take off my World Racer hat and put on a pair of jeans just to kind of feel like myself again.

I need moments like this: to eat Goldfish on the ride home from a long day at the beach. Burnt, and happy, a feeling totally normal.