People move across the world for an endless amount of reasons. However, once the destination is reached and the dust has settled, the search for some grasp of community begins. I met Michi in Savannah, Georgia, the city I’ve lived in for four years while attending college. After a brief interaction over Instagram, I met Michi at a local coffee shop to discuss my photography of a surf club she belongs to. I’ve written about my time with Sisters of the Sea before – an instant connection of womanhood and inspiration. That said, I was interested in the odds of Michi and I living and meeting in Savannah when I had originally reached out to a group in Jacksonville. The explanation behind that revealed itself to be a collection of not-so-scheduled life events that resulted in our coffee shop meeting.

Originally from Germany, Michi has spent a significant amount of her life exploring the absolute wonders our world has to offer. On the last day of a vacation, she found herself on a dive boat, unable to dive due to sinus pressure. After a series of dive boat misfortune, a lost bet, much more time living life, and, in my opinion, movie-plot-like circumstances, Michi found herself living in Savannah married to a man who had so serendipitously been on that dive boat.

Once in Savannah, Michi was in need of a community. And while some find that fulfillment in neighbors or coworkers, Michi found hers in the Sisters of the Sea. She began the routine of driving from Savannah to Jacksonville Beach for early morning monthly meet-ups, special events, and more. She connected with the other Sisters of the Sea in conversations of life happenings, struggles, dreams, and stories of womanhood. More time passed, as it does, and Michi found herself newly in charge of the Sisters of the Sea social media, which ultimately led to our introduction.

Whether she knows it or not, meeting Michi and hearing her story brought a lot of clarity to my Saltwater Soul project that I had been working on. We can never be sure of where the next steps of life will take us, but as I’ve found with most people with saltwater in their souls, the best we can do is trust that the Earth will take us to where we belong. And once we get there, we too can find our community.