Welcome to The Sober Vagabond

Ditch the booze. Grab your backpack. Rewrite your story

Apr 27, 2025

Photo of Author in Meteora, Greece. 2017

Hi, I’m Maria — writer, traveler, and professional life restarter.

Over the past few weeks, I packed up everything I owned, sold my house, and bought a one-way ticket to France.

I’m setting off to walk the Camino de Santiago starting on May 1st, 2025— a 500-mile pilgrimage across Spain — to celebrate turning 40, five years of sobriety, and the start of a life built around creativity, movement, and freedom.

I spent years chasing the kind of life I thought I was supposed to want — a steady job, a mortgage, stability — even though it never really felt like mine. I worked hard to build something that looked right from the outside, but deep down, I knew I was meant for something a little different: a life that felt freer, wilder, more true to me.

So here I am: rebuilding at 40 and chasing a life that feels like me—a little messy and unconventional, but full of hope, grit, and a whole lotta love.

What You'll Find Here

The Sober Vagabond is where I share the real, unfiltered stories of what it’s like to walk away from the familiar and step into the unknown — while living life alcohol-free, traveling lightly, and trying to build a writing life from scratch.

If you’ve ever dreamed of traveling the world, if you’re curious about a sober life, or if you just love a good story about following an unconventional path, you’re in the right place.

Free Subscribers Get:

Personal essays on sobriety, travel, resilience, and rebuilding
Reflections from the road as I learn how to create my dream life
Scheduled posts from my archives while I’m walking the Camino

Paid Subscribers ($5/month or $50/year) Also Get:

Monthly income and expense reports (as I run an experiment: can I eventually live off my writing, for real?)
Monthly AMA (Ask Me Anything) essays where I answer your questions about travel, sobriety, creativity, and life (this will begin once walking the Camino is finished).
Exact travel itineraries — real places I stayed, ate, and explored (no generic travel guides)

Subscribing supports my work — and lets me keep creating from wherever the road leads.

While I'm on the Camino...

From May through June, I’ll be walking across Spain without my laptop — traveling light and living offline.
While I’m gone, a few essays from my Medium archives will land in your inbox, and for pictures from the trail, you can find me on Instagram at @thesobervagabond.

When I’m back, I’ll have a fresh notebook (and some sore feet) — and a lot of new stories to tell.

Thanks for Being Here

Starting over is messy, beautiful, terrifying, and exhilarating — sometimes all at once.

I’m not here to sell you a “perfect” life, or to tell you that this lifestyle is superior, or the only way to do things. I’m also not here to give you step-by-step travel guides or generic listicles.

I’m here to tell real stories about what it takes to leave behind a past version of yourself and start anew — from quitting drinking, to chasing big dreams in your 40s, to life on the road as a solo, sober, female traveler navigating her midlife ~~crisis~~ reinvention.

Thanks for walking this path with me.

See you on the road,
Maria
The Sober Vagabond