After a truly miserable trip to San Diego last year, I wasn’t exactly eager to roll the dice on another family adventure. Then Seattle happened.
Somewhere between downtown Seattle, a martial arts tournament, hotel breakfasts, elevator encounters, a sick kid, and possibly the most emotionally devastating Chinese food I’ve ever eaten, something changed. For the first time in a long time, I felt alive. Not productive. Not busy. Not getting things done. Just genuinely happy, present, laughing, exploring, eating ridiculous amounts of food and enjoying being exactly where I was.
And the strange thing was, the trip wasn’t perfect. My son got sick. There were complications. There were moments when the whole thing could have gone sideways. It just… didn’t. Something good kept happening.
This episode is the story of the trip that reminded me what it feels like to actually enjoy my life again. It’s about two very different experiences with Seattle, the Chinese food that nearly broke me emotionally, an unforgettable elevator ride, and why sometimes you don’t realize how badly you needed to get away until you come back feeling like yourself again.
Seattle healed me.
Also, stick around for the bonus story about Large Marge in the elevator. Because apparently emotional breakthroughs can’t happen without at least one completely ridiculous human being.
What is Millian: Unmuted?
Millian: Unmuted is a podcast for saying things out loud when staying quiet stopped making sense. Hosted by Millian: Gen X, introverted, and officially fed up. This show explores the everyday realities, headlines, ideas, and cultural moments that actually matter… or maybe they don’t. No agenda. No performance. Just thoughts, reactions, observations, and the occasional nerve being touched. There’s no script. No schedule. No algorithm chase. No one listens. No one cares. Yet, still doing it anyway!