First Black Woman To Visit All 195 Countries Releasing Memoir

Jessica Nabongo’s daily life is full of bucket list-worthy times. The writer and entrepreneur lives by the concepts that the earth is one large community, people are inherently very good, and everyone has the power to generate the daily life they want. So it’s no shock that the 38-yr-old turned the initially Black woman to journey to all 195 nations around the world in the entire world. After chronicling her adventures in her well known vacation and life style weblog, ‘The Catch Me if You Can,’ Nabongo is making ready to share individuals activities in a new way. Her debut memoir of the same title, The Capture Me If You Can: 1 Woman’s Journey to Each individual State in the Planet, is established to be released June 14.

The travelogue, released by Nationwide Geographic, highlights 100 of her favorite destinations. Irrespective of whether she’s recounting whizzing by the dust roadways of Uganda on the again of a boda boda or puppy sledding in Norway, her experiences present an alternate viewpoint of world wide journey and adventure, simply because they’re coming from the lens of a Black woman.

“It was my individual journey to pay a visit to every country in the environment. But close to the end line, it grew to become so substantially even larger than me,” Nabongo tells ESSENCE.

She says that usually, the world wide travel industry has been dominated by white adult men. A single of her objectives is to change that to really encourage other Black gals to thrust previous any concern they might have of solo vacation, and to also make it a lot more frequent to come upon women who appear like her seeing the environment.

“I am a Black girl, but further than that, my travels have been formed by the fact that I’m visibly African,” the Ugandan-American globetrotter claims. “To that finish, I’ve had some problems with immigration with people today imagining that my passport is phony.”

But in accordance to her, the great ordeals significantly outweigh any terrible.

“Overall, I’ve had 99.9 per cent astounding encounters,” she suggests. “I do not sense like my race hinders me in my journey. I transfer with beneficial strength, and I definitely believe that that the environment is my oyster.”

Nabongo’s infectious optimism is reflected in every single page of the memoir, letting readers to acquire insight into her journey through just about every colorful excursion.

“I want men and women to read this book and inquire on their own if they are definitely residing the daily life they want to are living,” she says.

It is the issue she’s pondered in the previous, spurring some of her most audacious selections — leaving a large-profile corporate job, transferring across the environment many situations over, and eventually producing it her mission to go to each state.

Nabongo, at one particular time, climbed the corporate ladder, doing work for a pharmaceutical enterprise. It was perform that offered a six-determine wage and perks, but was also accompanied by depression.

“If anybody looked at my life, they would have mentioned that I was prosperous, but I was so not happy,” she recalls.

In 2008 she give up her occupation, shaved her head, and moved to Japan, the location she credits for switching the trajectory of her daily life.

Just after a 12 months-extended stint doing the job as a trainer in a compact suburb outside the house of Kyoto, Japan, she determined she no more time preferred to return to the United States to do the job a 9-to-5. As an alternative, she aspired to proceed checking out the world.

“I traveled until I ran out of cash,” she suggests with a chuckle. 

Inspired by good friends to commence a GoFundMe, she raised $20,000 bucks from her local community, allowing for her to carry on her travels. She also identified remote employment that furnished her the opportunity to get the job done from any spot.

“One of the misconceptions people today have is that touring was my total-time task, but it wasn’t” she suggests. “It was vital to me, so I made it function while also working a work that provided me with a income.”

In 2015, she turned to entrepreneurship, founding Jet Black, a luxury journey firm.

Nabongo’s tale is definitely amazing and whole of firsts that are shared in The Capture Me If You Can but to her, the memoir is a lot more than a travel manual to tout her worldly adventures. Though loaded with page-turning tales of overseas excursions, swoon-worthy photos, and practical suggestions for each individual sort of tourist, she hopes readers obtain more than just wanderlust just after reading her debut do the job.

“It’s genuinely a attractive story of humanity,” she suggests. “The e-book is not about convincing persons to travel to every state in the environment. It’s to show people that their desires are valid and achievable.”

It is been more than two a long time since Nabongo checked off the 195th nation on her record: The Seychelles, which she did surrounded by friends and family members. Although she’s attained just one of her largest feats, she suggests a lot more is nevertheless to appear, due to the fact her everyday living is all about “dreaming, creating, and achieving the unattainable.”

The Capture Me if You Can: A person Woman’s Journey to Every single State in the Planet is offered June 14 at all important vendors.

Topics:  memoirs journey journey bloggers