Hi! My name is Ashley Abboushi. I’m originally from Connecticut, but spent most of my life in Illinois. I’m an international model, DePaul University graduate, activist, world traveler, volunteer, vegan and athlete; but those are just labels. We are all so much more than a generic label. I want to share with you a little more about myself and tell you about an absolutely incredible, life changing trip around the world that I went on.
I grew up in Naperville. It’s a nice family oriented suburb of Chicago where people often joke that the high school student parking lot looks more like a luxury car dealership. I remember constantly complaining to my parents about how much I needed all of these materialistic commodities that many of my peers had. Why didn’t we have a home like my friends, one that I was happy to show off and hang out in? We did have a trampoline and a projector to watch movies, which was great! But, other than that, it was rusty old cars and all white walls in The Abboushi house.
It wasn’t until geography class that I realized that traveling outside of America almost every summer was not so common for an American family. We were talking about the Acropolis in Greece, not far from where my grandfather lives. I was really surprised when I found out that I was the only one who had not only been there, but had been to Europe. Those materialistic things all of a sudden didn’t seem so important after all.
Each of my grandparents are pure-bloods: one is from Puerto Rico, another from Greece, one from Palestine and one from England. More than anything, such diversity taught me to appreciate different cultures and religions, and to recognize the importance of travel at a young age.
The world is huge! Why stay in one tiny part of it all of your life? Personally, I think that traveling helps you appreciate what you have, teaches you to be more open minded, gives you the skills you need to be able to adapt to anyone, anywhere and experience things that you could never have imagined. For example, how awesome to experience New Years Eve in New Zealand almost a full day before my friends back home even started their countdown!
But before I get ahead of myself, this story really begins at a photo shoot with Krista Gobeli (one of my favorite make up artists) who introduced me to Rod Roberts (now one of my favorite photographers). I was blabbing about how I wanted to go back to Dubai, visit my best friend in Australia, and work in Cape Town when he looked at me and said, “Well why not? Go!” Rod has worked all over the world and said if he could do it, then anyone could... and that once you get there, things will work themselves out. He said that I would not regret it and that if things weren’t working out, I could always just come home.
I froze for a minute as my reality was just twisted... the act of following my dreams was being challenged and I thought to myself, “He is so right! What am I waiting for?”
People often talk about wanting to do this or that but never do it. The majority of us put happiness and following our dreams in the “someday” category, but when “someday” be? Why work so hard at a job you don’t like? Are you working to live or living to work? Who knows how long you will live and what curves life will throw at you? Can you really guarantee that things will be any easier later? The amount of responsibilities, relationships and properties to maintain, family to look after... if you think about it, doesn’t life do the exact opposite and get busier?
In a perfect world, we would retire healthy with the time and money to comfortably do the things that we’ve always wanted... maybe even travel to the places we’ve dreamed of. But even if that were the case, would I really be able to hike Table Mountain when I’m 65 as easily as I could at 25? Would I really skydive in Dubai or couch surf in Singapore and Hong Kong? Would I be dancing with new friends in a night club in Tokyo? Would I be invited to work at the Formula 1 in Abu Dhabi, or as an MC at the Rugby 7s in Dubai? What about shooting an editorial for Coach handbags, camping on the ground alongside Kangaroos near a waterfall in Australia, or being featured in a world wide Kellogg's commercial? Would I have had an abundant group of incredible life long friends all over the world? I sure wouldn’t have been featured by GQ South Africa as a fresh face had I stayed in Chicago.
Think about this: How much would you really