Why travel? One of the first things I realized in my childhood is how much I LOVED geography.  My favorite ‘book’ was It’s a Big Big World, which is essentially a giant atlas for children. I would spend hours looking at the maps, reading the names of countries, capitals, and cities. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I actually wanted to GO to all of these countries, capitals, and cities.

But how would I travel to all of these places?

Trips during my childhood and teen years consisted of family trips or volleyball tournaments throughout the U.S. Growing up in Southern California, I was able to visit many destinations along the West Coast but really wanted to know what life was like on the East Coast. I took a trip with my Dad every year during high school (Boston, New York, D.C.) to figure out if any of those cities could be my new home. After visiting Boston for a second time the summer before my senior year, I knew New England was the next place for me.

I enrolled at a Liberal Arts college just south of Boston and decided to major in International Business—the perfect major, I thought—to get my fix of geography and travel with a practical tie to a Business Degree (more on that in the future!). While adapting to life in New England from Southern California came with its own host of challenges (i.e.: weather, seasons in general, style, culture), it became a great launch point to discover new places.

Visiting roommates’ hometowns in New Hampshire and Maine and having volleyball games all over the East Coast gave me a chance to really experience life on the other side of the country.

But what about on the other side of the world?

I signed up for a block of classes during my Sophomore year of College called, “Business and Communication in China: Changes and Challenges.” Within this class block, I took Corporate Finance and Intercultural Communications and was fortunate to get to go on a 10 day trip to China with my professors and classmates. During my first international trip, I was able to walk on the Great Wall of China, negotiate with shop owners at the Pearl Market, and attend lectures at a local university.

Looking back, there is no WAY I would have been able to sign up for this class block if I didn’t have the financial support from my parents (the earnings from my days working as a Beverage Cart girl at a golf course the previous summer, unfortunately, did not last long enough to go towards this). However, having this experience made me realize that I really wanted to prioritize travel in my life, and even more so than I thought before.

In realizing this, I decided I would spend my entire Junior year abroad. My boyfriend (now husband) was not thrilled with this and my parents were still leery of me trading in my volleyball shoes for a year of traveling. This was the time—the only time in my practical reality—that I could live abroad, and I needed to do it.

Fall Semester: Bilbao, Spain

Why Spain? And why…Bilbao? I studied Spanish in High School and decided to dabble in other languages during college (French, Mandarin Chinese) and realized I should really focus on one language that I already had a foundation in. Hence: I chose a Spanish-speaking country. I chose Spain over Latin America because I thought that being from Southern California (and probably moving back to Southern California), I would have easier opportunities to travel to Latin America in the future. So I landed on Spain.

Bilbao though, I chose because it is a smaller city, not too touristy, and I thought the landscape and culture would be so beautiful and interesting to be immersed in. Not your typical Spanish city, Bilbao is located along the North coast in the Basque Country (País Vasco in Spanish or Euskadi in Basque).

It was in Bilbao that I learned about traveling on a budget, and making my pennies stretch as far as possible. I literally chose what trips to go on while living there, by basing them off of “What is the cheapest Ryanair flight” during holiday weekends (hello, €70 flight to Brussels!). I also stayed in hostels and with friends when possible in Italy, Paris, and various cities in Spain. Having this mentality helped me stay grounded knowing that I still had another semester abroad.

Spring Semester: Dublin, Ireland

I spent my spring semester in Dublin because I wanted to get an Internship on my resume (the practical me coming through here). I was fortunate that my college offered multiple international internship programs in a few cities throughout Europe. Since my foreign-language skills weren’t strong enough to be able to work in a non-English speaking office, I had to narrow my options down to London or Dublin. Since I spent the previous semester in Spain and wouldn’t have been able to do the full biometrics screening to get a British Visa—I narrowed it down to Dublin.

I had an internship there with a Destination Management Company where we planned corporate and group trips to Ireland. It was amazing being able to work with locals and provide travel support to clients while navigating my first 9-to-5 experience. I traveled by bus and train, 1.5 hrs each way for this internship, which made me learn a lot about myself and my commuting tolerance.

During long weekends, I would take trips with my boyfriend who was interning in London at the time. I still followed this “what is the cheapest Ryanair flight” mentality and fortunately had more options this time around since Ryanair was based in Dublin. Because of this, we visited Oslo, Norway in February (NOTE: I would not recommend this if you don’t have serious winter gear), Stockholm, Amsterdam and of course the surrounding areas of Dublin and London.

Now that my college abroad experience was over—what was next? How would I incorporate travel into my real, adult life? I attended some seminars my senior year on How to Live Abroad after Collage but alas, corporate America and my practical sensibilities were calling my name.

Post Grad – Present:  Practical Adult Life

What would this mean for me? Since graduating from college 7 years ago, I’ve learned how to prioritize having travel in my life. I’ve stretched PTO as far as possible and budgeted enough to support my travel dreams while still saving for “life.”  While I wouldn’t bat an eye if an opportunity arose to live abroad (don’t worry my husband is aware of this and has accepted this), I am happy as it is planning, saving, and dreaming about my next trip.

So why start this blog now? I wish I would have started this years ago but as “life gets in the way” it is easy to push things off.  There are also many things I would have done differently along the way and want to share some of the things that have worked for me, in the hopes that you will be able to incorporate more travel into your life. You don’t need to spend a ton of money or be a millionaire to be able to experience the world. But with some preparation, you can have some of the most wonderful experiences you’ll ever dream of.

Also as a disclaimer, I won’t be writing so many of these “about my life” type of posts. This is more to give you a background of why I chose this topic and why I want to help share my love for travel with others. I hope you enjoy following along and learn about how you can travel more. If you have any questions or comments about what you are hoping to learn about, please let me know so I can cover it for you!