2021 Year in Review: The Year of Metamorphosis

Shock, I’m pregnant!

If you happen to comply with us on Instagram or are on our e-mail checklist, this most likely isn’t a shock – I’ve been complaining about being pregnant for a stable seven months now. (For everybody else, shock!)

We came upon that I used to be pregnant a number of weeks after coming back from Costa Rica (I can not wait to convey our child to La Paloma Lodge and totally traumatize them by pointing at numerous beds and telling them that’s the place they have been conceived). It was very a lot deliberate – after a number of months of low COVID charges, it appeared like all the things was lastly getting again to regular (haha) so it appeared like a great time!

We’d really pushed again our timeline by a yr to account for COVID already, which actually simply helped me to really feel extra-ready. (Jeremy has been prepared for the final decade, and I’ve been engaged on feeling prepared for the final decade.)

So anyway, I used to be feeling emotionally prepared, lastly, and I’d been swimming my a** off getting my physique bodily ready for regardless of the hell it was about to undergo.

Too unhealthy none of that may put together me for absolutely the hell of first trimester…

First Trimester SUCKS

I want I may put this in like, all caps on a banner and fly it all around the world letting everybody know, as a result of nothing ready me for the way brutally, horrifyingly terrible first trimester was. First trimester SUCKS. HARD.

Once I first came upon I used to be pregnant – which really means I used to be about 5-ish weeks alongside by medical requirements, however solely 2 weeks post-conception, an idea that also confuses me and most lawmakers, it appears – I used to be nonetheless tremendous match and energetic. I had loads of power. I used to be nonetheless swimming a mile on the pool a number of instances every week, strolling a number of miles a day and even biking a number of miles every week I felt nice! Being pregnant was going to be no massive deal!

After which, in week 7, all of it got here crashing down.

First got here the unrelenting nausea. Y’all: the phrase MORNING SICKNESS is a f***king LIE. It’s ALL DAY, NONSTOP, NEVER ENDING SICKNESS.

I awoke needing to puke and went to mattress needing to puke. And in between, I puked. Something triggered absolutely the gut-wrenching nausea: consuming. Not consuming. Enthusiastic about meals. Smelling meals – that was the worst.

One time Jeremy innocently requested me what I needed to eat for lunch, and on the phrase “lunch,” I instantly projectile vomited throughout our bed room. I want I used to be exaggerating.

I had meals aversions to actually all the things. The one factor I may normally abdomen was bitter sweet and the odor of lemons. So I went round all day with a lemon in my pocket, huffing it like a drug and dry-heaving.

Lastly, my OB put me on Zofran, the drug they provide to most cancers sufferers who’ve extreme nausea throughout chemotherapy. It didn’t resolve my nausea, but it surely took the sting off of it, which helped me to handle a number of morsels of meals a day.

I nonetheless ended up dropping about 10 kilos throughout my first trimester, regardless of solely consuming bitter sweet.

However nausea is barely ONE horrible symptom of the primary trimester! What they don’t f***king let you know in well being class – what NOBODY tells you till you’re pregnant and instantly inhabiting the physique of the principle character in a Kafka novel because it goes by way of a horrifying and unfamiliar metamorphosis – is that you’ll expertise each horrible feeling ever, and it’s all unbelievable regular.

You may be so drained you’ll sleep all day. You received’t have the ability to depart the sofa, you may be so exhausted. The considered leaving the sofa will make you cry, as a result of it looks like you must go climb Mount Everest.

That is regular: it’s as a result of your physique is at present not solely rising a human, it’s additionally rising a literal BABY-GROWING, LIFE-SUSTAINING MACHINE on the identical time, in addition to creating 50% extra blood, ALL FROM SCRATCH. All the pieces else is secondary. You are actually a baby-machine-growing-robot, and also you would possibly as effectively tuck the lifeless husk of your self away in a closet for some time and wait it out.

Along with making a human, an organ, and a bunch of blood out of THIN FREAKIN’ AIR, your physique can also be busy rearranging all your organs to make room for all the brand new stuff it’s rising from scratch.

So round week 10, I misplaced the flexibility to make use of my abs, as a result of they … simply… stopped being the place they was once, I suppose? I couldn’t sit down or get up with out excruciating ache.

This lasted for a few month. Throughout this time, I tried to return to the pool and swim the mile I’d swim simply 4 weeks earlier.

I couldn’t even make it a single lap. My abs wouldn’t work. I couldn’t make my physique go straight within the water. I couldn’t use my legs. I needed to maintain my legs tucked up below me, like a shrimp, and doggy-paddle with my arms. I made it one horrible, sluggish, depressing, embarrassing lap after which collapsed in Jeremy’s arms sobbing so loudly that the three surrounding lanes stopped to stare (after which instantly console me once I informed them I used to be pregnant).

I was just a few weeks pregnant, and I didn’t acknowledge my physique. It didn’t work anymore. It was simply this consistently drained, completely nauseous, non-ab-having baby-growing machine that I occurred to be trapped inside. And it was a mind-f***okay.

And what’s loopy?? My expertise isn’t uncommon. MANY pregnant ladies undergo this (although, I ought to add, some pregnancies are a lot simpler than mine). Everybody’s mom has to undergo being pregnant.

And regardless of that, pregnant folks nonetheless must go to work and performance as normal. We don’t even have paid maternity depart, the concept of paid sick depart to cowl the agonizing first trimester, or any of the problem of being pregnant, is a laughable DREAM.

I don’t know how anybody capabilities throughout first trimester. I actually spent 3 months laying on the sofa, puking, and crying. And I really feel fortunate that I used to be in a position to try this from house, on my sofa.

The Second Trimester Doesn’t Suck (As A lot)

By the point 14-ish weeks rolled round, I used to be feeling a bit higher. My nausea was not decreasing me to a vomiting puddle of tears each day anymore (just a few days), and there have been days that I used to be capable of work from the sofa and sometimes even go on a really brief stroll across the block. This was a large enchancment!

The rationale why most pregnant folks really feel higher of their second trimester is as a result of after the extremely taxing work of the primary trimester, the fetus is now counting on the placenta to maintain it, moderately than sucking the literal life-force out of the human it’s inhabiting. So yeah, it was value all that effort for my physique to develop a baby-sustaining machine.

Y’all, the placenta is a ridiculously rad organ. The feminine human physique is unbelievable. I imply, being pregnant is an excellent sucky course of, but it surely’s nonetheless fairly darn neat.

Anyway, me feeling a bit of bit higher meant we may tentatively begin performing some enjoyable stuff once more. In September, we flew to Portland, Oregon for a fantastic outside wedding ceremony of an in depth good friend, and it felt semi regular (fortunately we rented a automobile so I didn’t must stroll a lot).

Right here is one factor about journey that I by no means fairly realized: airports are HUGE. Strolling by way of airports is SO MUCH WALKING. Like you must stroll in, stand in safety, stroll to your gate, stroll out of your gate – I imply, it’s a LOT. I needed to sit the complete time in safety and take breaks each jiffy through the extremely lengthy stroll to and from our gate.

Fortunately, there are assets like wheelchairs and golf carts for people who aren’t capable of stroll for very lengthy, and I fortunately utilized them. I’ll by no means take my potential to stroll by way of an airport as a right once more!

We additionally took a weekend street journey to lovely June Lake to catch the autumn foliage (one more already-written-about journey!) You may see tales from that journey in this Instagram highlight.

And in late October – after we’d each been boosted – we hopped on a flight to one among my favourite locations within the nation: Savannah, Georgia!

Yearly, 2 of my greatest mates and I (together with Practical Wanderlust’s Editor-in-Chief) take a good friend journey. We’re all unfold out throughout the nation, so we make it a precedence to journey someplace collectively every year – typically with husbands and companions in tow, typically with out. This yr, we have been celebrating Halloween in Savannah – one thing I’d been wishing to expertise for years!

We really and deeply love Savannah – we fell in love on a 3-day springtime journey again in 2019 – and this journey solely deepened our enchantment with this unbelievable, lovely city. The meals, the ghosts, the gravestones, the nightlife, the riverfront – it’s simply freakin’ superb.

And to my delight, I used to be really feeling fairly okay, more often than not! I used to be even capable of stroll, like, a LOT – in the future, I walked 14k freakin’ steps, which felt like a rattling marathon.

Properly, I principally felt okay…

Yeah, so I’ve this ear factor?

You see, I’ve this different well being difficulty that popped up this yr. I’ve been having like, ear points? Principally, in a single day, I misplaced listening to in a single ear. And in addition developed a particularly loud, disorienting ringing in that very same ear. Which was terrifying.

Tinnitus and listening to loss, it seems, should not reversible. There’s no treatment for tinnitus. And it sucks.

However then a number of months later, it acquired worse. I began getting debilitating episodes of vertigo, which have been so unhealthy that I couldn’t even transfer my eyeballs with out the world spinning and me projectile vomiting. (You guys, possibly this put up ought to be known as “The Yr of Projectile Vomiting,” as a result of I did a LOT of it in 2021.)

It was extremely scary. I couldn’t determine what was responsible for my vertigo. I’d actually get up, attempt to get away from bed, and instantly fall over puking whereas the world spun round me. After which simply must lay there on the bottom, for hours, ready for all the things to cease spinning sufficient to make it to the sofa.

I had no clue what was occurring to me.

I took an MRI, a listening to take a look at, and noticed 3 specialists. Principally, everybody was kinda stumped. I had some signs of Meniere’s Illness, some signs of Vestibular Migraines, and a few signs of a post-viral an infection that brought on vestibular neuritis (be happy to google any of these issues in case you’re curious, however I couldn’t actually even start to elucidate them).

There was some proof linking these form of signs to COVID-19, however I’ve by no means examined optimistic for COVID. The one time I think I might have had it’s in February 2020, proper after a visit to Disney World and proper earlier than all of us began listening to signs that, on the time, I dismissed as a really gentle chilly. At this level, I’m unsure I’ll ever know.

Lengthy story brief, the medical doctors have been all kinda stumped. I didn’t get a analysis. I did get a suggestion for a bunch of stuff to attempt to see if it helped, and a few of it did. For example, slicing out salt helped a LOT. So did slicing out sugar.

Sadly for me, not having the ability to eat salt or sugar with out instantly creating debilitating vertigo f***king SUCKS when you find yourself pregnant and intensely nauseous with meals aversions to all the things. On the uncommon event once I’d get a longing for one thing I believed I would really need to eat, I’d must make a no-salt model of it that tasted like stale cardboard and held completely no attraction for anybody, particularly not a pregnant individual whose physique has determined to reject the idea of meals. I’d like, sadly dip salt-free potato chips into straight vinegar attempting to faux I used to be consuming salt and vinegar chips. It was not the identical.

All the pieces I ate made me sick, and consuming nothing … additionally made me sick.

I used to be dwelling in a 24/7 hell of nausea and meals aversions, and in addition a 24/7 hell of of dizziness and vertigo after consuming. For months.

At one level, throughout our journey to Portland, I lay on our resort mattress sobbing as a result of I knew I wanted to eat, and that we wanted to go get meals at a restaurant, however I additionally knew that consuming was f***king torture. I simply stored crying “please don’t make me eat” to poor Jeremy and panicking over the considered smelling meals, and the inevitable vertigo assault that may come afterwards.

It was really terrible. (Although I ought to say that I’m extremely grateful that none of this appears to have triggered the consuming dysfunction I’ve been in restoration from for the final 16 years! Yay for that.)

So … it was tough. Finally, one other physician recommended I begin taking some dietary supplements that helped folks with migraines, together with magnesium, COQ10, and Vitamin B2. And later, one more physician recommended I attempt popping Benadryl to assist battle the fixed, debilitating vertigo.

All of those recommendations helped a LOT. The benadryl did certainly considerably assist the vertigo episodes, so I began popping the utmost protected quantity, which is 3 tablets a day. Was I awake at any level? Mmmmm … Kinda?

However the tablets and dietary supplements and being extraordinarily cautious about what I ate did, principally, maintain my signs considerably manageable.

Though there have been a number of slip-ups right here and there. The worst was throughout our journey to Savannah.

You see, it was my greatest good friend/Editor-in-Chief Richie’s birthday, and he needed to have a good time on the nicest, most lovely historic restaurant in Savannah: the Olde Pink House. It’s a fantastic Victorian mansion serving up a number of the greatest meals in a city stuffed with unbelievable meals, it’s tremendous haunted, and our server was telling us ghost tales. We have been having the perfect time!

I’d ordered rigorously – actually just a few scallops and asparagus with completely no salt or seasoning on them – however one way or the other I suppose not rigorously sufficient. About 10 minutes after I completed my meal, I felt the world beginning to tilt. A vertigo episode was approaching – quick.

I hustled/waddled my pregnant a** to the lavatory and made it simply in time to projectile vomit (bingo, in case you’re taking part in) throughout myself, the stall, and the complete common space. In between heaves, I apologized to the opposite horrified patrons. “Don’t fear,” I heaved, “it wasn’t the meals, I’m simply pregnant.” Everybody was very understanding.

I limped my means out of the lavatory and went proper exterior, fully coated in vomit and barely capable of stroll as a result of the complete world was spinning like a prime.

The poor staff have been so good, y’all. I imply it’s not day by day {that a} puking pregnant girl collapses in your entrance steps, and so they may NOT have been kinder about it. They went and acquired me water (which I promptly threw up) and collectively sympathized with me.

I form of simply lay exterior coated in vomit and answering well mannered questions on my being pregnant (17 weeks, no we don’t know the gender but, I’ve been craving bitter sweet, and many others) till somebody went and informed my mates what was occurring, at which level all of them got here exterior and located me puking in a bush. I used to be later knowledgeable by my extraordinarily understanding mates that the bush I’d chosen to discreetly puke into was straight subsequent to a desk occupied by a pair celebrating one thing romantic and vital. Oops.

That evening, my darling husband carried me as much as our trip rental and gently sponge bathed me and detangled the vomit from my hair whereas I attempted to not transfer my eyeballs an excessive amount of, lest I puke once more.

One factor I’ll say about my marriage this yr is that it has actually reached new ranges of intimacy. Ranges that I actually by no means needed to achieve, however right here we’re. So candy.

However what? After sleeping by way of a strolling tour the subsequent day and popping 3 benadryls, I used to be capable of maintain all the things down for the remainder of our journey to Savannah. And that’s … truthfully, an enormous victory! I really had the perfect time on that journey. Puke however.

Wish to see all the things we did? Head to this Instagram highlight for our Savannah tales.

October by way of December: Journey and Stuff

After Savannah, my well being did really proceed to enhance. At this level, I used to be prepared to only go all in. I didn’t understand how lengthy I’d be feeling as much as touring, charges have been fairly low, we have been boosted, and I needed to take full benefit. So for a stable 2-month stretch, we booked a visit each single weekend. What is that this, 2019?!

Since charges have been low and we felt pretty assured about hopping on a aircraft, we have been capable of spend Thanksgiving with my household in New Jersey. As a significant win, I used to be each capable of eat a bit and in addition didn’t puke in any respect (!!!). It was fantastic having the ability to spend the vacations with my household – we missed them a lot!

By our subsequent journey – a beautiful paid partnership to close by Monterey, sponsored by an expensive resort model who put us up in probably the most snug resort mattress I’ve ever slept in – I used to be feeling fairly darn okay. I did must get pushed across the Monterey Bay Aquarium in a wheelchair, however … , I didn’t puke, so. (Psst: you may see those stories on Instagram.)

A number of weeks later, we headed down (but once more) to Jeremy’s hometown, Morro Bay – this time so Jeremy may full a dash triathlon! You see, 1,000,000 years in the past once I was like 5 weeks pregnant and felt like a younger, wholesome girl and never a decaying, decrepit half-human, I had the good thought to start out coaching for a triathlon. I used to be already simply swimming the gap I wanted, I used to be fairly positive I may prepare myself to bike 12 miles with out too a lot issue primarily based on my health degree, and the working bit – effectively, you may simply stroll that, proper?

Anyway, it was a pipe dream that I’ve formally shelved for post-baby. However Jeremy caught my enthusiasm and signed up for a lovely half-tri in his hometown. The route is a freakin’ dream: first you swim within the Pacific Ocean in a bay surrounded by otters, you then bike 12 miles up and down Freeway One with sweeping ocean views, and you then run 3 miles alongside the seashore whereas dolphins and sandpipers serenade you. Y’all, his hometown is ridiculous, I’m barely even exaggerating.

Jeremy did a fairly good job coaching for his tri … for like 3 weeks. Then he fell off the wagon, by no means to recuperate. (To be truthful, he was waking up early each morning to scrub the home, working out in any respect hours to select up random meals and tablets for his pregnant spouse, and usually maintaining all the things collectively whereas I principally lay round crying in a puddle of vom.)

However fortunately, he’d gotten one among his greatest mates to conform to it. So a number of days earlier than the tri, when he was totally prepared to only not present up and eat the $100 entry charge, his fantastic good friend talked him again into it with a pep discuss that I can solely assume was much like the one he gave me once I needed to not hike the Inca Path to Machu Picchu and eat our $400 downpayment.

Fortunately, their triathlon turned out a lot higher than our Inca Trail disaster! Jeremy accomplished the triathlon (regardless of attainable the least quantity of coaching that anybody’s ever achieved for a triathlon). I don’t know what his ending time was, however I do know that he completed lifeless final – not really simply due to his (lack of) coaching, however as a result of he and his good friend needed to finish the triathlon collectively, and her begin time was like quarter-hour after his. The time isn’t what issues, anyway: that they had a blast collectively, and most significantly, he DID IT! He’s already trying ahead to seeting his sights on one other one in 2022.

In the meantime, within the time it took Jeremy to bike 12 miles, I managed to waddle throughout a car parking zone, use the lavatory, and discover a good spot to sit down and wait with Mulan. (They are saying that being pregnant is the equivalent to running a marathon every freakin’ day, although, so … there’s that.)

Round this time, my mother drove throughout the nation in an RV to go to us and in addition drop off the RV. Sure, y’all: my mother purchased an RV. And he or she’s letting us use it! (Although we’re paying her to hire it.) It’s a fantastic Winnebago Solis Camper Van, and we’ll be utilizing it to drive cross-country subsequent yr with the child once we transfer again to Louisville. (After which, sooner or later, go tenting in like, as typically as attainable.)

Shortly afterwards, we drove as much as Lake Tahoe to cozy up in a cabin with Jeremy’s little sister. Jeremy went snowboarding, I lay round by a fireplace, it was fantastic! On the way in which out, although, we did get caught in an insanely unhealthy snowstorm – we made it out (barely) however Jeremy’s sister was caught in Tahoe for the subsequent 2 days. It was very Donner Occasion.

After which, it was Christmas! We normally journey on Christmas as a result of Jeremy will get a pleasant lengthy 2-week break from educating, and this yr can be no completely different: we determined to go to Maui, Hawai’i.

Sure, once more. For, truthfully, the identical causes as we did in March: a brief(ish) and cheap direct flight, good vaccine and masking necessities, and a free place to remain and automobile to make use of. Solely this time, as an alternative of it being simply the 2 of us, we’d be joined by my mother!

Our two weeks in Hawai’i used to be a dream. Jeremy spent a number of days getting scuba licensed, and my mother and I went off on our personal adventures. Y’all, my mother is a daredevil. I imply, my dad might have backpacked throughout Southeast Asia and Europe within the 60’s, however I’m fairly positive my mother’s facet – together with her mother, Katy, my travel idol – is definitely the place I get most of my wanderlust gene.

One wet day, my mother was like “let’s go on a scenic drive!” And I used to be like sure nice that sounds as much as my being pregnant skills. We stopped at Safeway to get me fried hen and potatoes, as a result of in 2nd trimester all I’m consuming is junk meals and I’m truthfully simply glad to have the ability to eat something, after which she took me to what I can solely describe as probably the most terrifying street I’ve ever had the pleasure of driving on.

Y’all, they are saying Street to Hana is frightening. No. Street to Hana is like Freeway One: kinda windy and subsequent to the ocean. However the Kahekili Freeway?! IS TERRIFYING. It’s a street stuffed with hairpin turns, one-lane demise traps, and cliffside plummets to unseen horrors under. You spend many of the street terrified that one other automobile would possibly come, at which level one among you has to tug over and let the opposite move, otherwise you each find yourself careening off a cliff, most likely in flames. (Apparently, vacationers aren’t even purported to be driving on it, however I’m unsure whether or not that’s really true.)

My mother, in fact, knew this. She’s spent numerous time in Maui, and he or she’s pushed this freeway earlier than. When she stated “let’s go on a scenic drive,” what she actually meant was “let’s go on a death-defying journey.” Solely – she admitted – she didn’t inform me that, as a result of she is aware of I’m a ball of hysteria and won’t agree to come back. Then she lured me with grocery retailer fried hen and took me (and her unborn grandchild) on a death-road to a lava discipline stuffed with geysers the place she as soon as broke her ankle (maintain your moms away from the Nakalele Blowhole, y’all).

By the way, my mother turned 70 this yr. Y’all: I’ve nice genes.

Anyway, apart from white-knuckling my means down theKahekili Freeway, we had a really enjoyable time. My mother was in no rush to do something, nor was I, so most days we simply form of lazily went to the seashore, or to an out of doors restaurant, or to the outside aquarium (Jeremy pushed me in a wheelchair). Each night, we watched the sundown. One evening we noticed 6 manta rays feeding within the waves because the golden solar descended and a rainbow appeared overhead.

It was heavenly, and the proper last-trip-for-a-while.

Weblog Stuff

A number of issues shifted this yr within the weblog. For one factor I took a number of steps again, and for an additional factor, my mindset shifted – a lot. And truthfully, I’m not likely positive I’m a content material creator anymore … or perhaps a blogger.

It’s not that I don’t like my job anymore. However my job has modified. Frankly, I don’t have the inventive power for it anymore.

The fact is that journey for the aim of content material creation is exhausting. Earlier than your journey, it begins with weeks of researching and planning your itinerary, plus researching picture spots and planning in time in your itinerary to gather content material (we normally reserve a full day only for photographs). We even pack for the photographs we’ll be capturing, selecting our outfits primarily based on our chosen picture spots. And we’re typically researching and buying new journey gear to convey with us for the aim of testing it out, capturing it, and reviewing it on the weblog.

Then throughout your journey, along with the same old stressors of journey, you’re consistently capturing photographs. Only a by no means ending stream of capturing. Which means timing all the things ~good~ with the lighting – a lot of waking up early and dashing to get locations throughout golden hour (which, to be sincere, we’re too lazy to do more often than not).

And if it’s essential to hop in entrance of the digital camera like us, there are additional issues. You gotta be sure you look camera-ready on a regular basis, which does not come naturally to me. You’re schlepping round a tripod, setting it up and placing it away on a regular basis. And also you’re spending a lot time ready patiently for crowds to clear so you may nail the shot (all whereas ignoring the judgemental appears you’ll most likely get when you pose, ready.)

Taking pictures whereas touring implies that moderately than being within the second, you’re consistently stepping out of it to doc it along with your digital camera (and telephone) and taking notes for the posts you propose to jot down.

Add on video and it’s one other layer of complication – now you’re capturing for 2 separate mediums, whereas working round experiencing stuff and taking notes on it. Add in tiktok or instagram reels/tales and that’s a third shot you must get of all the things you do and see. Now along with posing for photographs, you’re additionally capturing movies of your travels, and it’s essential to be “on” and humorous and entertaining and artistic (at the least we do, since let’s face it, cinematography isn’t our sturdy go well with and by no means can be)!

Posting tales on IG that evening? Add on 2-3 hours of additional work every day of your journey, ensuring all the things is correctly tagged and referring again to your notes to be sure you’re giving correct data.

Then whenever you get again house, you’ve got a whole lot or hundreds of photographs to undergo and edit. Video footage to sift by way of. And several other 4-6k phrase weblog posts to jot down, all of which can want extra analysis as a result of your pre-trip analysis and notes are by no means sufficient – you’ll all the time have found one thing through the journey that wants extra digging into.

All in all, a single weblog put up takes me a few month to create from begin to end – at minimal. After which the advertising and promotion for that weblog put up takes about one other week or two, or else no person will ever learn it.

Content material creation and touring is definitely a full time job, and it’s why so many full-time vacationers are additionally full-time creators – they go hand in hand!

However my power for this type of journey has been depleted. Truthfully, it was depleted after the ridiculous quantity of journey I did in 2019, and 2020 simply sucked the life out of me in new and alternative ways. I felt it coming again in Costa Rica my creativity all the time feels probably the most fueled once we’re touring, and I wrote this post principally throughout our journey. However then, ya know, being pregnant – and there my inventive power went once more!

The reality is that almost all of our weblog posts printed this yr have been written by contributors (search for their bios on the finish of every put up) and edited by my superb editor-in-chief, Richie, (who I used to be capable of increase to a full-time position this yr!) and that almost all of our social media posts have been printed by my fantastic social media supervisor, Melissa.

And I don’t assume that’s a foul factor. It’s simply completely different. I’ve moved into a brand new form of position: I’m now not a journey blogger or content material creator, however the CEO of a journey publication (er, two).

Lately, when Jeremy and I’m going on journeys, we don’t discover ourselves as excited to doc the expertise. We’re extra content material to only expertise it. And that’s OK, as a result of it’s extra vital for me to recollect why I’m so captivated with journey than it’s to churn out content material about my travels.

I’ve additionally been extremely quiet on social media. As an introvert, I’ve restricted capability for being “on” and for social power – and this yr, in between rising a toddler and fixed vertigo/puking assaults, I had hardly power in any respect. In addition to, although this may occasionally come as a shock from somebody with a public platform, I hardly use social media in any respect in a non-work capability. (Like, I’ve completely no want to obtain TikTok, though my social media supervisor is engaged on getting our account up and working. If you happen to use TikTok, want to follow us?)

Sharing my personal life publicly feels draining and emotionally exhausting, and scrolling for too lengthy pulls up all these superb, proficient content material creators doing higher than I’m at utilizing social media, which simply makes me really feel like sh*t. It’s simply not good for me. So I don’t do it fairly often.

Which implies that my power – that foolish, enjoyable, talkative power I used to share every day on Instagram Tales? Lately, it’s just about all going in the direction of my team. I’m spending all of my social power to help them, information them, prepare them, be sure they really feel appreciated and that they’ve what they should succeed.

Over the previous yr, I’ve stepped up for my group in methods I’ve by no means been capable of dream of earlier than. Now we have weekly group lead conferences and quarterly all-team conferences. I’m capable of ship my group on my behalf on press journeys and sponsored travels, outfitted with an organization digital camera and bank card and the total help of myself and the remainder of the Sensible Wanderlust group. And I’m capable of assist my group to chase after their very own desires by sharing with them all the things that I’ve discovered and all of my expertise, in order that they’re capable of run their very own companies whereas touring and seeing the world, too.

With my time freed up from the content material creation facet of the enterprise, I’m capable of deal with increasing Sensible Wanderlust’s attain in thrilling new methods. I discover that working a enterprise requires a special form of inventive power, which I additionally deeply get pleasure from. It’s not nearly rising larger and incomes more cash, however about rising extra meaningfully – as a result of I discover that there’s no level in working your individual enterprise if it’s not fulfilling. If I needed to be unfulfilled, I’d simply return to the company world!

While not having to spend my inventive power on content material, I’m capable of discover our core values. Like, what can we stand for? How can we assist our readers join extra deeply with locations, and have extra significant experiences throughout their travels? How can we make sure that our influence on the locations we cowl is optimistic? How can we have now a bigger, extra optimistic influence? These are the questions that I’m in a position to consider now, give you options for, after which execute with the assistance of my group.

And that inventive power goes in the direction of new endeavors, like my new Louisville weblog, Let’s Go Louisville, and a very thrilling new enterprise in Louisville that I can’t inform y’all about but (as a result of it’d jinx it), and the non-profit that we placed on maintain this yr to attend for the pandemic to enhance.

By not shouldering all the accountability of the enterprise anymore and as an alternative stepping again to tackle a management position as an alternative of a solo-preneuer position, I’m capable of increase and do extra. And, if I’m being sincere, I’m capable of higher preserve my power. As a result of dwelling even barely within the public eye is exhausting. Being “on” is exhausting. Documenting what you’re doing makes it extremely tough to be within the second whereas doing it. And I need to be within the second as a lot as attainable.

And so, to wrap up this insanely lengthy, monster of a put up… right here’s how Sensible Wanderlust did this yr. And to reward y’all for making it this far, I’m going to do one thing I haven’t achieved in YEARS (since I ended posting income reports) and be completely sincere about our 2021 numbers:

• Complete gross income: $341k, yay!
• Highest grossing month: In November 2021, we earned $41.8k – WILD!
• Complete site visitors: 3.9M web page views, which is 30% greater than 2020, however nonetheless -11% lower than 2019. The pandemic + a Google Replace affected our numbers fairly a bit.
• Highest site visitors month: In Might 2021, we had 415k month-to-month guests. Approach lower than our early 2020 numbers, however we’re slowly getting again there.
• Social followers: 65k whole. Social has by no means been our sturdy go well with!
• E-mail subscribers: 29k
• Posts printed: 26 on Sensible Wanderlust, 12 on Let’s Go Louisville

Subsequent yr, I’m aiming for some main progress. Fingers crossed that the pandemic is FINALLY over, that we will get our two Louisville companies up and totally launched, and that I can hit a significant milestone I’ve been chasing for the previous few years – $500k+ in gross income! (After which 7 figures, right here I come…)

Oh, and we’ll be shifting throughout the nation. And having a child. Only a few main adjustments…

So, in a particularly lengthy nutshell, that’s how 2021 went. And in case you made it this far, you’re most likely my mother I simply need to provide you with an enormous THANK YOU. As a result of as all the time, completely none of that is attainable with out y’all. I hope our weblog has helped you not directly to chase after your desires this yr, and thanks from the underside of my coronary heart for serving to me to chase after mine.

See ya subsequent yr!

In search of extra year-in-review posts? We’ve been writing them yearly for the reason that starting of our journey weblog. Right here all of them are:

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