Why I’m Rebranding: A New Perspective on Travel
When I was approached about joining a team of travel advisors earlier this year, my heart said yes, but my gut asked, “What’s the catch?”
Since my first study abroad trip to Spain in 2015, I knew that travel made me feel more alive than anything else. I wandered the streets of a foreign city, staring at the people and buildings, surrounded by a language I didn’t yet fully understand, and realized there were entire worlds outside the bubble I grew up in. I felt alive, free, and hopeful that I could create a life where I could be my most authentic self through my wanderlust spirit. We all want a place to call home and find meaning, but outside influences often make it more challenging by telling us what to do with our lives. Yet, at that moment, I knew what I wanted to do with my life, and I was sure I would return to Spain to explore more.
Fast-forward nine years, years of trying different jobs and career paths, ignoring my instincts to drop everything and travel indefinitely, I was finally allowed to turn that travel passion into a career. I was thrilled, accepted the offer, invested in it, completed the training, and was ready to start. I ignored the outside voices telling me this was a frivolous job going nowhere, and I was determined to make it work, even if just for discounts on my travels.
At first, I focused on finding deals for myself but soon found myself looking at other travel agents on social media and diving into what everyone else was promoting within the team. Seeing others post travel deals constantly made me feel like I was doing something wrong. I also started posting deals, trying to emulate what I thought I was supposed to do.
After seven months in this job, I’m still trying to find my place in it - but I’ve lost myself in the process. I recently set a goal to post daily travel deals to excite viewers, but I realized most deals I was sharing weren’t ones I would take personally. How genuine could that be? It wasn’t fun for me, and people didn’t buy it. That’s when I realized I needed to pause and reflect again on what travel truly means to me, think back to those moments I’ve had traveling throughout the years, and why it became my passion. Yes, this was a job I had signed up for, but that didn’t mean I had to only focus on selling something, but rather, the why behind it, asking myself what people gain from this product and service.
Eight years ago (though it feels like yesterday), I moved back to Spain after graduating college and traveled around Europe. Soon after, I continued to find ways to live abroad, including joining the Peace Corps in Colombia. When I moved back to NYC to pursue a master’s degree, I continued backpacking during my summers off. I was determined to see more and more, but over time, I realized it wasn’t just about what I was seeing.
It was more about who I was becoming. Travel became a way to learn more about myself and the world. I learned to navigate foreign streets, pick up on local gestures to communicate politely, and form relationships with people from different backgrounds. I developed some of my best friendships from my experiences exploring a new place together. I discovered we had more in common than I ever expected. It became my joy to unite people, share laughs, and realize how our commonalities far outweigh our differences!
After taking some time to reflect, I was reminded that travel isn’t just about finding the best deals—no. It isn’t just about seeing places, especially not the touristy ones. Traveling somewhere new is about… exploring yourself, the world, and your connections with others. It’s about… stepping away from routine and discovering your strengths, limitations, and the beauty of the unfamiliar, away from the distractions of everyday life.
My true passion lies in helping people connect with themselves and others through exploration, whether abroad or in their hometown.
Because of this, I’m shifting my focus from solely offering travel deals to inspiring deeper connections and helping others find purpose in life through their journeys near and far. That could involve bringing people together on a group trip to interesting places that push us to reflect and become more curious about the world, helping people plan purposeful travel experiences based on what they need at this point in their lives and with whom, sharing stories about connections through travel, or inspiring people to develop an exploration mindset while at home.
If any of this resonates with you, I would love it if you would join me on the journey of living purposefully.
Have you ever had a trip that changed your life? Please share with me in the comments! (:
