It is hard to believe it, but in just a few days it will be exactly one year since I sent my first ever travel blog post out into the world and launched this space. I honestly cannot believe that I so quickly jumped into this venture, but at the same time it was being manifested and dreamed up for years. Friday, March 13th was my last ‘normal’ day before the world shut down, and somehow in those few weeks that followed I had a lot of personally transformative experiences. As the world was in crisis mode, I was coming out of my own personal crisis and trying to reconcile what was next for me. It is a great privilege to say this, but quarantine gave me the space to reflect and work through some of my own personal struggles. The first few weeks of March last year were some of the darkest spaces I have ever been in mentally and emotionally. And somehow the ability to literally shut down a lot of the everyday stressors of life allowed me to learn and focus on what was best for me. And part of that was launching a dream I always had, a place to reminisce on and share my adventures.

A song that I discovered around this time was “There Will Be Another” by Bronze Radio Return. I played it so frequently during those few weeks that it became my most frequently played song of 2020 on Spotify. The lyrics go “Cause there will be another / There will be another one / Something new to fall into / It will be a better one / There will be another / There will be another one / Someone you will hold onto / There will be a better one.” I definitely think that the song was written to focus on a relationship ending and another beginning, but for me it gave hope that the ending of one thing does not mean the end of everything. There will be something on the other side, and often it will be something better, greater, and more fitting.

 

Right now, I am about to make a huge change and leap in my life. I would not be here without the support of my partner, my family, my friends and my community. I am so scared but also somehow so excited and at peace. I find myself waking up in the morning with dreams of a future that I can create. I do not know what it will look like, but I write it all down to see if someday it will be manifested. I am seeing new possibilities, making new goals, and feeling new hope.

 

This blog started off as a way to share travel tips and, frankly, was an amazing way for me to dig deep into memories, look through photos, and ask travel partners questions about details I had forgotten. Over the last year when we were physically stuck, it gave me the opportunity to adventure out in my memory, my mind and through my camera roll. It made me grateful for everything I have had the opportunity to experience and so excited for the adventures to come.

 

But I am figuring out what else this space can be for me, and what I can offer you.

 

I have spent my whole life to this point – almost thirty years – thinking that life is about reaching some destination, and there you will find your happiness and your contentment.

 

I am letting this notion go.

 

I know it is so unbelievably cliché – and I know that I have heard this phrase hundreds of times in my life, but only recently am I really able to feel and understand it. Life is a journey. There is no ultimate destination where you arrive to, find true happiness, and then are just done. Maybe some people have this rare experience, but I really do not think so.

 

It seems so obvious now, that every next step is only a part of the whole puzzle and not the answer itself. I think my relationship with travel has always mirrored this.

 

Whenever I have traveled to a new destination, I have had this rare experience where I am mentally, physically and emotionally fully present in that space. This is why I love to travel. It gives me motivation to try new things, to be active, to put in place new routines (even if just for a day or two) and to dream and think about life in a different way than I do normally. I have always felt my happiest on trips (and sometimes my saddest – travel can be stressful y’all), but those emotions all feel true and real in a way that I do not experience in my daily life.

 

My hope is to bring that ability to be ‘present’ to my every day. To see every part of a day as a mini adventure, a way to experience something new and learn and also just….choose to be happy? Choose to enjoy myself? I don’t know. I’m still working through this, but I see the connection and I feel hopeful that this mentality can play out in my daily life.

 

And I think that this blog can be a beautiful place to accomplish this.

 

I am still so excited for the day when someone tells me that this space allowed them to make the most of a trip they were on. Or even telling me that they chose a destination because of what I wrote here!

 

For now, it has been a safe space for me. An outlet for me. And a place to dream about where I may physically go next.

 

I am also going to start using this as a space to track my own emotional and mental wanderings – a space to work through my current journey, even as it stands while I am home living my daily life.

 

I will work through the parameters of what feels right and best to share here. But I think external accountability is a big factor for me in sticking to goals, and I believe a written processing and record will only serve my goals of being present and living this journey as fully and…hopefully…happily as I can.

 

So cheers to one year of travel blogging in the midst of a global pandemic, to a year of personal struggle and personal growth, and hopefully to the continuation of a beautiful story and journey of my life that I get to call – Wanderlust Amy.