I’ve decided to do a little series of “Moments I Felt on Top of the World.” We all have those magical or “ah ha” moments in life and sharing them will only spread the love! Here’s my first one, originally posted on Instagram when I was feeling all sentimental. 😉

I was just trying to meditate (keyword trying) and work on my breathing and I started thinking about all the moments in my life where I felt on top of the world. Funny enough, many of my most precious moments are times when I was alone.

In 2011, I studied abroad in Panama and we had an excursion to San Blas Islands. We stayed on an island for 3 days and it was an incredible experience, but I was miserable! I think the only time I slept was the night we all bought bottles of Abuelo and drank until we couldn’t feel the heat and bugs anymore.

We slept in little open-air beach huts and I DO NOT do well sleeping in humidity and heat (just ask my friends Sabrina and Lindsay about our night on Cat Ba Island). I was up all night, every night shocked at how everyone else could sleep. I constantly got up to wash my face, step in the ocean and just walk around our little island. I felt oily, gross and irritated.

One morning I walked outside before the sun came up because I just had to get out of our sweltering hut. I remember it was so peaceful and beautiful watching the sun come up in all different colors. I grabbed my digital camera from the hut and snapped these pictures. To this day they take me back to that moment and I still can’t get over how beautiful they are. No filters or nothin’!