Our Meet Cute…

Actually we’ve had several. 

Katie and Emylee met in the 2014 Spring semester…

Moriah and Katie met in their Writing of Intermediate Fiction class the next winter semester…

Emylee and Moriah met in their Intermediate Fiction Writing class in the 2015 Fall semester…

And in that same semester, we all finally came together in a stroke of fate taking the upper-level Shakespeare requirement for the English major.

In over two years, we have come to the following conclusions:

• The only writing feedback we gained (outside from each other’s) was from self-contradicting pseudo-intellectuals
• Coffee officially became a deemed necessity in our diets
• Group study sessions were stunningly effective, especially when identifying dialogue in Shakespeare’s works
• Our writing and reviewing styles were extremely versatile but essential
• The saying, “Great minds think alike” isn’t any different from “Dirty minds think alike”

After a recent turn of events in this past July, two of us had to move for personal and logistic reasons; thus leaving Emylee in Columbus while Katie went up north near Cleveland to be with her family and Moriah with hers as well in her native state of Connecticut.

But Katie and Moriah try to make up for it in two ways: 

• Katie taking monthly weekend visits to Emylee’s home
• Bi-weekly Skype sessions as a trio. Until the time comes for the voyage to Ireland and Scotland, with a detour to New York City, that is.

We especially try to make up the circumstances with our writing. Katie is a planner with hints of exuberance and spontaneity, Moriah is a free spirit yet likes consistency, and Emylee is a gypsy vagabond that needs the constancy and security of home. We’re extremely singular yet we’re all one in the same. “All for one. One for all.” Boom, hijinks ensued.

And just for the sake of laughter and randomness, we spent a lot of time considering who we see as our spirit animals:

• Katie’s Tina Belcher of Bob’s Burgers
• Emylee’s comedian Diane Spencer
• Moriah’s Maggie Simpson of The Simpsons

But we all have a bit of Laura Clery in us. If you don’t know who that is, look her up on YouTube as one of her characters, Helen Horbath. Oh Steeveeeen. 

For the Voyagers’ Pen, here is a brief Q&A with the voyagers themselves to get a look into what they’ve done and learned through their bloggers process.

Q: What made you all decide to do this travel blog, hence this trip or “voyage”? How did you come up with it?

Katie: I told Emylee one day that I was planning a trip to Ireland this previous September and she said she’d go with me. At first I thought she was kidding, considering her commitments to her family and work. Then the next day she already had a list of places she wanted to go.

Emylee: And while I made that list, I got to thinking that we could also do Scotland since the costs aren’t that much of a difference with currency and what not. Originally we intended to do two weeks solely in Ireland, but then I thought if we did an extra week we could do Scotland as well.

Moriah: So, for the longest time, I didn’t even realize that I was invited on this trip… After about three months of listening to Katie and Emylee talk about this trip on our group chat, my thick skull shattered and I realized I was invited. I think I was just waiting for them to show up on my doorstep with flowers and a handwritten invitation…

Katie: I think it was because Emylee and I were so hyped up of the idea, that we thought since you were in the group chat it was implied you were in on it too.

Emylee: Absolutely. And since we all lived a bit away from each other, this idea of a girls trip was even more crucial. We had to make this happen soon because odds are we’d never get a chance like this again.

Moriah: What are you talking about, Emylee?!?! We will MAKE it happen again!!!!

Katie: Couldn’t have said it better myself. Oh and just wanted to put it out there that Emylee found our tickets for $292 after I told her to check out Skyscanner going from JFK to Dublin Airport. Woop woop!

Emylee: In general, we’ve all been interested in traveling and have done just that. I’ve been to Germany, France, Spain, China, South Korea and most of the Caribbean, as well as lived in Japan for two years teaching. But we all wanted to do something more. Especially when we could write about it.

Moriah: Yup! I’ve been to Portugal (twice!) and Israel. Ireland and Scotland are places we’ve all been interested in seeing. So we figured “Why not take a trip together?” considering we have the time to do it. I mean, we all graduated around the same time and we’ve never really traveled alone. Like without our family…

Katie: or in Emylee’s case, without spouses or kids.

Moriah: Exactly. None of us really have really had a girls’ adventure. I did go to Maine with my sister for a few days though…that was fun. 🙂

Emylee: And I’ve done cruises with my hubby and other couples who were friends. But nothing to this caliber of a trip. So, the planning began!

Katie: Yep! And because we’re all writers, it wasn’t a surprise to find we were all thinking of starting a blog. So there you have it!

Moriah: And we’ll be documenting as much as we can of those twenty-one days in counting.

Emylee: And you’ll have the opportunity to see everything we share with you!

Q: Assuming the amount of preparation, how did you three manage and plan?

Emylee: The organization of the planning process really fell to Katie, because I work eight to five, five days a week. I’m married, and have two kids.

Moriah: And I was in the middle of moving and trying to get my life together in Connecticut. *giggle*

Katie: I unexpectedly had a lot of time on my hands so I just dove in. But these two would constantly get messages from me asking if “this” and “that” would be good or what did they think of “this”. And while sometimes I was pushy, even controlling–sounds bad, I know–I found that I liked being on top of things but not necessarily in charge. I liked organizing and, at the very least, aware of every detail. I hate being out of the loop because you never know what could happen. And these two were very patient with me, I think.

Anyway, I’d get just as many random texts as they did from me. Overall, we all contributed. Obviously.

Emylee: Oh yeah and it involved an incredibly extensive conversation on Facebook messenger–that’s still going on as we speak *chuckle*–as well as making boards and sharing pins from Pinterest.

Moriah: I took care of the train tickets to NYC! And I have made the executive decision that I’ll be in charge of getting on the subways there. That’s my big contribution… I love NYC. *another giggle* But really, thank God Katie dove right in. She and Emylee actually know about the layout of Ireland and Scotland…I don’t know nearly as much as they do. BUT, I do know that both countries are full of beautiful men with heart-throbbing accents…just saying…

Q: After all that planning and development of the website as well as this trip, did any of you find some dynamic that worked well or didn’t?

Moriah: Starting to plan things is sometimes difficult for me. I like starting essays and stories but, when it comes to something like this, it can be intimidating. So in this case, Katie helped me out a lot by starting the website and providing outlines that I could add to.

Katie: But I’ve a pension for overwriting or condensing something. So Moriah and Emylee helped a lot on here with breaking down what needed to be said and eighty-sixing the tedious extras.

Emylee: That’s true. We always bug each other for criticism and formatting our work. As for me, my issue is staying on task. We all have our priorities, but mine are my kids, my husband, Ben, and my job. So it’s pretty difficult to keep my attention when everyday I’m juggling so many things at once. My family comes first always and these girls respect that. But anyway, once we realized our weaknesses as well as our strengths, it was easier for us to move forward.

Katie: Yeah, we’ve really thought about what it is that makes us work. While Emylee and I are very…exuberant, to say the least…

Moriah: I’m usually more reserved and calm. So this balances out our little trio. Plus, Katie and her belching helps break the tension when we are all a little frustrated.

Katie: …

Emylee: But it’s okay…we still love her.

Moriah: Of course we do!