Ex-Star Tribune Sports Writer Reflects On Her New Life

Amelia Rayno covered college basketball for the Star Tribune for five years before reporting on food and travel for the newspaper. In 2018, she left the Star Tribune (and Minnesota) to travel the world, working as a freelance writer and photographer.

Though she's thousands of miles away — as of now, in Honduras — Rayno's nomadic adventures can be digested through her spirited Twitter feed and blog. She documents both the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, of her adventures abroad.

Rayno points out to the Minnesotans telling her how lucky she is to be in a warm climate that her living conditions are far from paradise:

While the ex-sports reporter will be in Central America — not Minneapolis — during the Final Four, she isn't completely removed from the tournament. Before March Madness kicked off, Rayno filled out a bracket without the use of a printer:

This week, Rayno's former employer published an article she wrote, reflecting on following this year's NCAA tournament while working as a "full-time nomad."

"During that electric first Thursday, I camped out in my Comayagua hotel room, battling with the lethargic Wi-Fi for scoring updates and texting friends in the States — eager to access this rare shared interest," she writes.

"We revered those last-second shots, we groaned about late-game fouls, we still mourned a bracket crushed and extolled our veritable expertise after an upset.
It felt like old times. Almost."

Read her entire article at the Star Tribune.

Follow Amelia Rayno's journey here.