Recently I’ve obsessively been researching travel to another country. I want to go to 30 countries before turning 30 years old and am currently at 26 countries at the age of 26 (I guess you can say I’m on my way). Unfortunately, the past year was extremely expensive. I moved across the country for a new job and spent so much on moving expenses alone (Who knew moving a mattress could be over $1000…not me). I found myself at a new job where I would have to wait awhile before earning a significant amount of PTO since I’d have to use my only accrued days for visiting family over the holidays. Plus, I just turned 26 and now am paying a lot more for my own health insurance. This also includes expensive adult braces to fix my TMJ issues that I’ve been putting off for 2 years.
On a side note, I made a joke about losing weight on Invisalign, since you have to take them out to eat or drink anything but water and you get too lazy to take them out. The official Invisalign twitter account decided to reply and I don’t think they understood my humor as you can see in the tweets below.
Soon, I found myself searching travel credit card sign up bonuses like crazy, including a search on the Facebook group called Girls LOVE Travel (#GLT). Organized by Haley Woods, Girls LOVE Travel is a global community of over 1 million active and aspiring female travelers providing resources and empowerment to one another through safety, socializing and support. What I love about the group is that you ask advice on any travel question you may have, but can easily search the group as someone has already had the same question as you. Also there are lots of people sharing their travel stories and photos of their journeys. I find it fascinating that all of the members can lead such different lives, but traveling has such an impact for each and every member.
Sometimes I get lost on the page, imagining my next travel adventures. Recently, I’ve been noticing a lot of people asking for recommendations on a place I either currently live or have lived before. For myself, I grew up in Philadelphia, but lived in Los Angeles for a bit, and now live in Birmingham, Alabama. I can usually spit off a couple things to do off the top of my head, but found that I really didn’t know about some of the hidden treasures of my own hometown. I was learning more from the comments of these recommendation posts than I had ever learned by actually living there myself.
I find that I got so into my work or school routine, that I barely made the time to explore my own city, only yearning for the next time I could hop on a plane. The irony is that I was dying to get far away to go on an adventure, when there were plenty of adventures in my own town just minutes away. I think we all get stuck in this mindset that a “travel trip,” has to be a plane ride away to some exotic location, but a travel trip to me is really about the adventure. You don’t have to go far away to see beautiful nature, a quirky museum, or to eat great food.
Not to say that I still don’t want to go on a big trip this year and mark off a new country, but I do have a new appreciation for the city that I currently live in. I moved to Birmingham only 4 months ago and have already done so much! If you do not follow my blog (which why wouldn’t you), I am doing a challenge called #52thingstodoinbham, where I try something new every week that you can only do in Birmingham, Alabama. You can also follow along by searching the hashtag on Facebook or Instagram (@shake_ur_bonbon). Already I have completed 21 things out of the 52 on my ever growing list. Not only did I learn more about my new city, but I have had some amazing adventures and met some great new friends along the way. Isn’t that what travel is all about anyways?
I constantly feel this need to get away and travel. I think it is a product of just being in my mid-20s and so unsure of what the next 5 or even 10 years hold. From one side I feel this pressure to do everything as soon as possible. That I need to reach my goals and travel across the entire globe as soon as possible as if somehow time will run out at any moment. On the other hand, is this grandma inside of me telling me to slow my roll and maybe just take a full night of doing nothing but watch Chopped. I always somehow end up looking up cheap flights and planning trips I never go on. Even during study abroad I was overwhelmed at the thought of hitting up so many European countries, when I could have spent 6 months in Ireland alone and still not have done everything. No matter what I was doing, I always just felt this need to travel or plan a travel trip to look forward to, but I am still learning how to stand still. I’m learning how to enjoy the moment and the little things that make each day an adventure.
Okay before I get all mushy on here (to be fair it is close to Valentine’s Day) I’ll wrap it up. Until next time, please enjoy this photo of us keeping safe during a tornado warning…
#gltBLOGGER / #gltTravelBlogger / #gltBlogs / #sharethebloggerGLTlove
If you are interested in learning more about Girls LOVE Travel, check out the links below:
- IG: Instagram.com/girlslovetravel/
- FB Page: Facebook.com/girlsLOVEtravel/
- Store for Branded items: https://www.promoplace.com/glt-store
Girls LOVE Travel (GLT), was founded by Haley Woods on Dec 30, 2015. Girls LOVE Travel is a registered trademark with the USPTO and the GLT Logo is copyrighted. Girls LOVE Travel, LLc. is filed as an S Corp with the US government. Unauthorized use of the GLT name, logo or likeness to create merchandise, trips, or spin-off groups/subgroups will result in removal from GLT and all of its subgroups.
Bonnie Gross 
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