"Stray: Breaking Free, Falling Hard, Growing Stronger"

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What happens when the path you choose leads far from everything you thought you knew? Shannon O’Brien leaves behind a life of routine to chase adventure across South America and Asia. With only a backpack and a restless heart, she dives into landscapes as beautiful as they are unpredictable. But what begins as a journey to explore the world soon becomes a deeper quest to explore herself. She finds herself lost and dehydrated in Peru’s Colca Canyon, nursing an injured spider monkey in the Bolivian jungle, and inside a high-altitude jail. A crude hospital in Cambodia tests her limits, while encounters with a shaman in Vietnam and a dangerous brush with Moroccon drug lords challenge everything she thought she knew about trust and survival. When a relationship turns violent and threats close in from unexpected places, the stakes are no longer just about where she’s going—but whether she can make it through. In a world that constantly shifts beneath her feet, Shannon’s greatest challenge isn’t just survival—it’s learning how to keep moving forward without losing herself.