Not a comeback. A becoming. Alula is what happens when a lifelong travel obsession, a breast cancer diagnosis, and a question — what if every thriver could have this feeling? — collide into something real.
Breast cancer. Invasive ductal carcinoma, ER/PR positive, HER2 negative. The kind of news that turns the calendar into a chart of appointments overnight.
What followed: double mastectomy with DIEP flap reconstruction. Chemotherapy. A care team at UCSF, including a holistic oncologist who combined conventional and complementary approaches.
And then, when treatment paused — Hana.
That trip gave me hope for the first time in months.
I wasn't a patient. I wasn't scheduling appointments. I was just a person again — and I came back ready for what was next.
Long before Alula, I was the friend my friends texted for hotel picks. The one with the Notes-app full of neighborhood breakdowns in cities I'd visited once. I've been traveling internationally since elementary school. I aim for one or two trips abroad every year.
Becoming a licensed travel advisor wasn't a pivot born of crisis. It was an extension of who I've always been. The crisis just gave it a mission.
Alula is what happens when a lifelong obsession finds the right purpose.
Occasional letters from Alula. Trips funded, stories shared, milestones reached.