NomadHer is happy to share a new series featuring NomadHers and their own travel stories through personal blog posts. All posts have been edited for grammar and clarity while making sure to retain the true voices and stories of our writers. We’d like to extend a special thank you to all of our writers and to our community!
Hello from Korea!
I’m Sharon Noh. I go by Sharon, my English name. It carries my identity: Rose of Sharon, 무궁화(Mooguen-wha), the national flower of Korea.
For the past thirty years, I’ve lived as a global nomad, moving through more than twenty countries and hundreds of cities and villages.
Why have I chosen this nomadic life?
The answer is simple. Everyone and everything around me is my environment, and among all elements of that environment, I hold Place as sacred.
We Choose Places. Places Choose Us.
Wherever I go, a place is never just a temporary space I pass through. It becomes the living ecosystem that shapes my life. I choose a place with deep intention for the life I want to create, and then I immerse myself completely into it.
For me, Place is far more than physical geography. It is where I meet people I would never have encountered otherwise. It is where I experiment with different ways of living, learning what becomes possible when I step outside my familiar boundaries. It is where I discover a new version of myself that was always waiting to emerge. It is my Living Lab.
This leads into usually the next question people have: Why a global nomad?
To me, life is a living lab and as a global nomad, I get exposed to new people and new environments. I run experiments that reveal who I am and what the world is. When I arrive somewhere new, those experiments shift into full gear expanded possibilities. It took me years to realize that places are one of the most powerful forces shaping who I become.
Recently, I spent one morning reflecting on the first half of 2026. Looking back, the most significant theme of these months boils down to one word: place.
Roots: Seoul
To leave, you need a place to return to, an anchor. Mine is Seoul. It is where I was born, where I spent the most time, and the nest where my mother lives.
At the same time, Seoul is my operational base for contribution. From here, I ground myself by training professional coaches, guiding CEOs, and mentoring startup leaders navigating transformation.
Seoul gives me roots. And these roots allow me to reach out through different branches, so that I can eventually bear flowers, fruits, and seeds.
Every time I return to Seoul, I don’t feel that my journey has ended. I feel that another chapter is just beginning.
How I Move Through the World
People often ask how I travel. My answer is surprisingly simple. It’s what I believe lies at the heart of meaningful travel writing.
First, I connect.
I slow down long enough to let the place welcome me. I return to the same local café until they know my name. I ask questions, and I listen more than I speak. This isn’t tourism. It’s building a friendship with a place.
Then, I explore.
Not only the streets and landscapes, but also the woman I become while living there. Every woman who travels solo discovers something about herself she didn’t know existed. That is a story worth telling.
Finally, I live.
I shop at local markets. I build small daily routines. I show up as myself, not as a visitor passing through. Only then does a destination stop feeling like somewhere I visit. It becomes somewhere I belong.
When I return to Seoul, something invisible has shifted. I am not just someone who traveled. I am a woman who chose her own life, lived it fully and returned more fully herself than when she left.
This is what every nomad understands in her bones: A place doesn’t change you simply because you visit it. A place transforms you because you decide to be changed.
That decision to choose places intentionally, to immerse completely, to let yourself be shaped, is the most sovereign act a woman can make. And every time I return, I carry the proof of that sovereignty with me.
Proof that I didn’t just travel.
Proof that I became.
This is the space I am opening here.
Most months, I’ll write from inside a place I’m living in. I share the ordinary texture of staying somewhere. Some months, I’ll bring you into conversations with other women nomads I meet along the way, exploring their own versions of this journey. Different voices, one common thread: what a place does to a person who allows themselves to be changed.
What is the place that is currently shaping you?
