No Regrets: Adventuring Through Life by Linda McDermott
No Regrets is the story of how one woman travels all seven continents in an effort to grow from the small, Midwestern beliefs with which she’d been raised. Linda leads the reader through an inspirational memoir including adventures that once seemed out of reach—from washing elephants in Nepal to working (twice) in Antarctica—all the while learning to trust herself.
(A copy of this book was provided by the publicist in exchange for an honest review)
I don’t do that many sponsored posts on this blog – partially because I don’t always have time to read to a deadline and partially because if I’m going to do one, I try to pick a book I think I’ll really like.
Life’s been more than a little busy lately, but when I saw what this memoir was about, I immediately knew I wanted to read it. I’ve always wanted to travel, but it’s only now that I’m older that I feel like I have the opportunity to make that a reality. The last few years I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to one new place each year…a practice I hope to keep up for as long as I can.
Because I totally understand the motivation behind Linda McDermott’s wanderlust and the title of the book, No Regrets. We only get this one life, something I’ve also been intentionally conscious of the last few years. This quote from Tuck Everlasting often runs through my head:
“Don’t be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don’t have to live forever, you just have to live.”
I’m constantly trying to remind myself that I have choices to make about how I want to live, so that when I come to the end of my life, which will hopefully be a long, long time from now, I can look back with no regrets. That I packed a lot of life in my years and made the most of the time I was given on Earth. Which includes going out to explore said Earth.
No Regrets is a memoir of Linda McDermott’s life in travel. McDermott began traveling the mid-1980s on adventures that would take her from a road trip through the US to the Swiss Alps to Nepal to Fiji and even to Antarctica. Along the way she chronicled her adventures and experiences. I really enjoyed this book because I liked that her adventures weren’t run of the mill – there was a lot of spontaneity and a lot of off-the-beaten-path adventures. Not the typical tourist things. I also enjoyed that McDermott wasn’t a very young girl when she started and most of her travel was done as a middle-aged woman or older. In the epilogue, she tells the story of a trip to the Swiss Alps conducted in her seventies! This is not the memoir of a privileged young adult who set off to travel the world before settling down, but rather the story of a woman who worked hard and prioritized making the most of her time on Earth to have new experiences – exactly the sort of woman I aspire to be!
This is a feel-good story filled with that sense of awe and wonder that only comes when you’ve truly opened your eyes to seeing the beauty in everything and everyone around you. This book is the perfect spring break or summer beach read – perhaps while you’re off having your own grand adventure!
I’m also pleased to share that if you review this book on Goodreads or Amazon, the publicist is offering two additional stories by the author for free. If you read and review this book, make sure you email Alyssa at Mind Buck Media to get your free stories (alyssa [@] mindbuckmedia.com)
