In my last role, I traveled a lot. Like a lot a lot. All over the country. I’ve been to almost every state.
Sure I had traveled in careers past, but not nearly as much as I did while living in Dallas. Quite honestly for the first year and a half of the two years I spent in Texas, I rarely spent time in Texas.
In my new role I was told I’d be traveling 20%. That’s actually been 0% since I started. That will change some, but not a whole lot.
When I first started my career, I wanted the travel life. I dreamed of being the businesswoman who was always off to another city. In reality, when I got that life, it was a lot of love/hate.
I love that I’ve seen cities that I’d never go to otherwise. Who would have thought that I’d love some of the tiniest cities in America? But I also know that I never had the opportunity to commit to a life outside of work in Dallas because I spent time traveling, working, and being exhausted the few times I was in Texas.
Fast forward to California, I’m back and I don’t travel unless it’s somewhere I choose to travel. And that feels good and that feels bad. I miss work trips, but I have the power and the means (shoutout to being paid well, that’s new) to go wherever my heart desires. How wild is that? I’ve never had that opportunity before.
Its April, Between now and June, I’ve already got a trip to Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lisbon, Porto, The Azores, Phoenix, and Newport Beach. For the second half of the year I’m planning Amsterdam, the Champagne region, Brussels, London, Hawaii, Boise, Nashville, and Phoenix again.
I’m traveling for fun. I’m seeing the world because I can. I’m not bound to a quick stressful no sleep no exploring work trip. Because honestly, being a business babe on a plane all the time, it’s not all champagne dreams.
Realistically, you saw the Instagram version of my work trips. You saw the end product for the masses. You didn’t see the 14+ hour days, the blood, sweat, tears, that one time I got a concussion, the time I was hospitalized for a stomach bug, the time I pulled a muscle, the not eating for an entire day, the sleeping 3-4 hours a night, the family events I missed, the relationships I didn’t have time for, the weddings I couldn’t be in - and those are just to name a few.
I miss work travel. But you know what I realized I missed even more? The opportunity to define travel for the culture, the adventure, the choice to travel because I have the time and energy to do so. So I’m not traveling for free much anymore, but I am traveling. On my own terms, my own time, and there’s no end in sight.