The Write Way Around: Traveling Tales

To be honest, I have had quite a hard time writing the past few days because there has been so much on my mind. I have struggled each day mainly because there are stories that my heart has been bleeding to write that move lower down on the totem pole so I can get my actual work done and catch myself all up to speed.

Right now, I am writing from the refreshing retreat of Lake Wanaka on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island. I am sitting at a small wooden picnic table on the patio of Wanaka Bakpaka, staring out onto the vista of the glass-like lake in front of me with gentle, sloping earth rising above it like champagne bubbles.

As silly as this may sound to all of you working a 9-5 job, I feel mentally tired and exhausted from constantly thinking: thinking about what I have to write, e-mails that need to be answered, deadlines that need to be met, posts that need to be written, photos that need to be uploaded, stories that need to be sent out, publications that need to be contacted, ideas that need to be pitched, journal pages that need to be filled, a book that needs to be written – the list goes on.

Each day I am slowly learning how truly difficult it is to balance the life of what is basically a professional traveler versus the life of what is basically an everyday traveler.

When I left Korea back in August 2011 (yikes!) for my first big backpacking trip, I had massive professional plans for it. I talked with my friend Molly about turning it into a documentary of sorts – two city girls (well, she is from the suburbs but I let that slide) traveling around Asia.

I wanted to document the life of a backpacker, the ups and downs, the experiences we would have and the people we would meet throughout our travels. We had this grand plan. I even wrote a former professor about the idea, and he seemed to think it had legs.

But day one of our Asia trip came, and we just had fun. Day after day passed, and we continued to just have fun. Ten months passed, and I was still having fun.

I did nothing but have the time of my life.

I was not driven by any professional direction but instead driven by a desire to wake up without knowing what day of the week it was or to wake up and decide whether I wanted to climb mountains, trek jungles, swim oceans, spend a day drinking chai, wander markets, roam streets and cities or do whatever else the world held open in front of me that day.

Sure, I kept a blog, but I had no real motive behind it. I had no real message.

My blog served as nothing else but my own personal outlet, a way to post a pretty picture, to compose a heartfelt thought about a place that nestled itself into my soul.

Yet trip is different – it is incredibly different, as my goals for this trip are highly professional. This trip is about a girl who is truly trying to turn her passion into her career.

While everyone else if off and having fun every night, I am glued to my computer, uploading photos and pounding away at my keyboard like a mad scientist trying to scramble together the notes that I have written in the most disorganised of manners.

All I am constantly thinking about is ways I need to improve – get better at photography, start taking videos, get a better camera lens, write catchier stories with attention-grabbing titles like “The Ten Ways to Experience New Zealand Under The Stars”. (That might actually make for a good story.)

It is hard, and at times I get so damn overwhelmed. I fall flat, and I find that I compare myself to other writers out there whose sites have brilliant ideas and garner incredible readership or who freelance for some of the best publications. I sit there wondering about what I am doing wrong instead of focusing on what I am doing right.

I have basically assembled a team at home – three of my best friends whom I brainstorm with, run ideas by, talk about promotion with, learn about how to increase my social media presence from, go over each story I write. They help me build my brand each day, and each day I am so grateful to have them there when that minute strikes, and I find myself collapsing into a ball of self-defeat.

My dad sends me e-mails sometimes with things like, “I was just watching a show called GlobeTrekkers. You should contact them and try to work for them.”

And as much as I absolutely love and adore my father, I want to scream back via a text message: ‘CAUSE IT IS THAT EASY. (Often I do. Sorry, Dad.)

I know he means well, and I feel bad when I snap out on him and let my emotional distress take its toll – it is just that some days feel harder to make it than others, you know?

There are some days I wake up, and the grass is the greenest of greens God ever created. It feels like a green only I know about. I feel ready, empowered, hopeful.

But then there are other days lurking just around the corner like monsters under the bed, and they are ready to just jump out at me, snatch all my hopes and dreams and run far, far away with them.

The most I can continue to do, though, is just write. Write, and be passionate and believe in what I am writing about. And to an extent and degree, I am, and I am hoping that it shines through with each story I write and each photo I take.

But there is more. There is a bigger picture for me, and there is still a reason I started doing all of this in the first place. There is still an underlying yearning, dream and goal that I have been harnessing throughout the years that I want to make happen.

As my best friend said, there are a few catalysts – some obviously much more recent than others – that have led me to lead the life I live. They have shaped who I am, how I see the world and how I want to make my mark on it.

And no, it is not just through my book (though that is obviously still up there at the top); it is my dream to connect people through storytelling. It always has been my dream.

I am a writer because I want to tell my story, but I am a journalist because I want to tell other people’s stories.

I want to start concentrating on exploring the cultures and people of different countries by creating multimedia pieces of human interest. As a girl from Brooklyn, I guess I would see it as sort of connecting sidewalks from around the world in a way.

New Zealand has been nothing short of amazing. It has been five weeks of action-packed activities that have re-awakened the side of me that craves a super good thrill and a challenge. I plan to do a round-up of my trip that will include where I am at mentally and emotionally, covering the highs and the lows of my five weeks traveling throughout New Zealand.

But I am excited to continue on to Indonesia, because I am aiming to start putting particular parts of my plan into motion once I step foot on its shores.

Either way, I hope that my passion and my own personal mission on how I best try to live my life each day shines through in my writings and inspires you to keep seeing and experiencing the world with me.

Who knows, maybe it will even inspire you to get out there and do it yourself one day.