About Michelle &
The Orange Mermaid
What I Do
An SEO content writer, solo traveler, and freediving enthusiast 🐚
My relationship with content writing goes way back in high school. I filled countless notebooks with fan fiction stories and hand-drawn anime comics, losing myself in creative spaces long before I knew content writing could be a career.
Finding My Path
My Journey from Corporate to Creative 📝
After spending 8 years in the corporate as a Project Development Officer in social services, I’m privileged to have finally found my sweet spot in the digital marketing industry. Making the leap wasn’t easy, but trading rigid office schedules for the freedom of remote work has transformed my life in ways I never imagined possible.
Solo Adventures 🧡
When I’m not crafting content, I’m probably planning my next solo adventure. There’s something incredibly freeing about exploring new countries with just a backpack and my curiosity.
Despite being a huge introvert at home, something transforms in me when I land somewhere new. Maybe it’s the anonymity or the fresh start each place offers, but I become surprisingly confident navigating foreign streets, trying new food, and meeting fellow solo travelers.
My Travel Footprint 🌍
It’s a small splash of color on a big, wide map. But to me, each shaded place holds many stories. Most of my footprints trace the warm corners of Southeast Asia. It may not cover much of the globe (yet), but every country is a reminder that I chose wonder, movement, and a life lived with wide eyes and an open heart.
As a Pisces Baby 🐠
As a Pisces, I’ve always felt a special connection to water. It has always felt like a second home. There’s something magical about the moment you become weightless. Holding my breath and descending into the blue gives me a connection to the planet I can’t explain with words (ironic for a content writer, I know!).
The Orange Mermaid Story 🪸
What started as a daydream has finally become The Orange Mermaid, my digital home where I share all my underwater logs and travel stories.
The name? It’s pretty simple. I love orange. That little pop of color that makes me smile in every hotel room would definitely be something orange.
And the mermaid part? My friends and I spent so much time freediving that we started joking we must have gills. There’s something magical about moving through water with just your body, no tanks between you and the ocean. It’s the closest a human can get to being a mythical sea creature.
I Find Joy in Quiet Creation ✍️
In my quieter moments, I return to another creative passion – charcoal sketching. Though I haven't taken commissions in recent years as my digital freelance career has flourished, there's something deeply satisfying about capturing emotion and personality with just a piece of charcoal and paper. This artistic side complements my writing, both requiring an eye for detail and the patience to bring the vision to life.
My friends joke that I should title my portfolio Tears to Masterpieces, since my artistic talent seems directly proportional to my emotional turmoil. When I'm happy, my subjects look suspiciously like potatoes wearing wigs. But give me a good existential crisis, and suddenly, I'm channeling Rembrandt.
As a huge introvert, I find these solitary pursuits – writing, solo traveling, and drawing – perfectly suited to my nature. They give me space to reflect, create, and recharge while still connecting with the world on my own terms.
To those few who take the time to understand my quiet nature and the personal growth I'm going through right now, your patience and acceptance mean more than you know. I'm forever grateful you made the effort to understand my introverted ways. Your acceptance is a rare gift I don't take for granted.
I love you! ♡
Words That Might Guide You, Too ✨
The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.
Travel isn't always pretty. It isn't always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that's okay. The journey changes you; it should change you.
When you dive, you begin to feel like an angel. It's a liberation of your weight.
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
In the waves of change we find our direction.
Let's Connect!
Whether you’re a fellow freediver, solo traveler, hybrid nomad, or just curious about any of these worlds, I’d love to hear from you! Drop me a message or follow along on my social channels for regular updates from wherever in the world I currently am.