“...she would love that I now intentionally make space to be creative and don’t feel restricted by ‘being good enough’. I’m creative for my own damn self.”

Abigail Wilt (Abbi)

Location: Nashville, TN

Hobbies?

I feel closest to myself outside in nature (and near water) so my hobbies include hiking, kayaking/paddleboarding/planting myself near bodies of water, anything to do with my sweet dog Groot, cooking and baking. I also love to paint, do some mediocre calligraphy, and play the piano. My dream is to open a bed and breakfast.

For most people, leaving a seemingly super cool job at a well-known magazine and traveling around Europe would be a pretty big risk. Did you consider it a risk, and what led you to make the decision to leave and travel?

Honestly, a big portion of why I left my job was because I had, that Spring, ended my relationship of 4 years and needed to experience something new. I’ve always had a heart for people and a dream to experience new cultures, and so going through a painful breakup made me realize that I needed to try something outside of my comfort zone. It was terrifying to think about leaving my steady job and making sure I had the money to travel. But at the same time, I just felt something stirring inside me that said, “Now is the time.”

I’m incredibly grateful to my parents, because their initial reaction was, “Go. You have the rest of your life to work and to save money.” And as I had moments of panic and cried to them about whether or not it was okay to blow my savings on three months of backpacking around Europe, they reminded me that I just needed to say yes to the opportunity and that “heaven and earth will move into place to make it happen.”

It definitely felt like a risk, but even more so as I began to tell people, almost always, the reaction was, “You’re so brave.” I didn’t feel brave. I felt scared and like I was discovering myself for the first time. I took all of those responses of people who said, “I wish I could do that” and, “I would never have the courage” and that fed my desire even more, knowing that a lot of the things we hold as important in the U.S. like, career and status didn’t mean to me what they meant to others. The hardest part was quitting, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

With the wisdom you have now, if you could give your 18 year old self any advice, what would it be and do you think she would've listened? (haha I highly doubt that I would've)

She would’ve never listened. Ha! I was a pretty sheltered pastor’s kid growing up, and those new years of freedom developed and laid the foundation for a lot of who I am today. But—I still would’ve shaken that girl who wanted to please everyone and sought perfectionism in everything. I would’ve told her -

A) It all turns out okay so calm down chick.

B) You are going to have to be okay with not everyone liking you.

C) You are valuable and worth it and you need to steer away from the people that make you feel like anything less than that.

In what way(s) would your younger self be proud of who you are today?

I love this question because I don’t think we give enough credit to our past selves sometimes. Past Abbi is always doing small things that sets up Future Abbi for success.

My younger self valued generosity, independence, and creativity. She would be so proud of how I grew into empathy which spills over in my life by being generous. She would love that I’m not afraid to do things alone even if it means feeling uncomfortable and trying something new. And, she would love that I now intentionally make space to be creative and don’t feel restricted by “being good enough”. I’m creative for my own damn self.

What are the things that bring you joy and how do you intentionally pursue them even when life gets hectic?

There are two things that bring me great joy and ground me in chaos: cooking and my dog.

I show love by feeding people, and cooking is incredibly cathartic to me. I work a 9-5 office job, but most days after work you’ll find me going to the grocery store and then making something at home. I get so much joy from simmering a sauce for thirty minutes, stirring it to the sound of an audiobook (I’m currently re-listening to the Harry Potter series). When I don’t have time to cook during the week, I make time to block it out for myself on the weekend. Just like any kind of self-care, I think prioritizing the thing that refreshes up—which right now for me is experimenting in the kitchen, keeps me sane with all of the other craziness that goes on.

Animals also bring me joy, so having a sweet dog that relies on me to take care of him forces me to carve time for that “joy” even when I don’t feel like I can. But, he brings me outside for a walk, or a hike, or curls up when I just need some emotional support, and that is so soothing when things are stressful.

Abbi Wilt

Joan Inman

Shantae Edwards