Why Do I Keep Writing About Travel?

It's just one of many interests that I can't stop writing about

Photo by Mantas Hesthaven on Unsplash

In Mission: Wanderlust, I write and podcast about our family’s travel adventures and the things that we have learned along the way.

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When I first started blogging in 2012, my initial goal was to write about everything that we were doing with home renovations. I quickly discovered that I had too many things to write about, and home renovations were just going to be part of the focus of my blog.

Then our family took up camping again the year after I started writing and before I knew it, I was writing about our childless trip to Gettysburg. Then I wrote about our family trip to Florida the following spring. And then it just became a regular staple of my blog, writing about everything that interests me, arguing passionately when the time seemed right, and writing about all of our travels over the years.

Last year, when I moved over to Substack, I convinced myself that travel writing should be the main focus of my Substack. New space, new life in Indiana, new writing focus, right?

I quickly discovered that it was a silly box to put myself into. I love traveling. I love writing about travel. I believe that travel and learning from the travel experiences of others is an important part of the human experience. And yet, I was not a travel writer. Even though I just finished a draft of a camping memoir, I am not a travel writer. I teach full time. For nine months out of the year, my main professional focus is my classroom. I can’t be an expert about travel and I can’t expect my readers to see me as a travel expert.

Experienced? Yes. Expert? No.

And yet, I still want to make travel and my reflections on travel a significant part of my blog and newsletter. Why? Because travel matters to me. New experiences matter to me. Taking my children to new places where they can learn about art, history, and nature in person matters to me. And I feel called to share those experiences with others so they can learn from us and possibly be inspired to do the same with their own families.

Yes, it is a privilege to travel. Yes, it is fraught with questions about emissions and the best way to minimize climate impact. Yes, it is difficult to manage during certain points in our lives.

But I still believe that it is an important part of the human experience for those of us who can do so. When we travel and see different parts of the country and spend time out in creation, we have a better understanding of the people and places that make up our world. We have a better appreciation for the environmental cost to our world’s natural biodiversity when we can see the impact for ourselves. We have a better idea of how we can live and flourish when we see the way others are doing it now. (Or even in the past, as our family learned when we visited Mesa Verde.)

My big picture goal for this newsletter has always been exploring the journey of life: marriage, motherhood, faith, my understanding of my role in this world, etc. Writing about our travel has always been an integral part of that because it is a part of my life journey.

So, with our summer vacation coming, I’ve decided to alternate my weekly posts with one life reflection/social commentary and one travel post until I run out of more to say about our trip to Orlando (because sometimes we just need to have vacations that are pure fun.)

And for my fellow travelers out there, one of my favorite travel Substacks right now is

Brent and Michael Are Going Places

. This couple is living the travel blogger dream and writing about it honestly. I also really appreciate

Toby Neal

and her travel writing. Finally, I highly recommend listening to this podcast episode from Pantsuit Politics if you are concerned about ethical travel practices.

And I hope you are looking forward to reading about our summer adventures, because we can’t wait to experience Disney and Universal with a pre-teen and teenager.

Until next time, thank you for joining me on the journey.

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Order my new book!

I’ve written a memoir collection of essays based on several of my blog posts from the past seven years. A couple of the above essays can be found in this very book. It is available for purchase on Amazon.com.

And if you do purchase, please give it a favorable review on Amazon and Goodreads, or any other book tracking app that you might use.

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