Let’s Go Skydiving & Fall Hopefully in Love with Travel
“Jumpstarting your inspiration to help you and your favorite group text enjoy the best travel hints and hikes, recommendations and reviews. Follow personal posts here for ideas along the way, and follow Touristy Tourist for creative lessons in getting lost.””
I’m not a fan of cheesy bumper stickers. If you’re going to accidentally hit someone, I’d rather dent political endorsements- if only to see if they’re paying attention. I only recently started actually listening to the cliches & mottos that have been offered up since kindergarten, the way you might backstep to pay attention to a person’s name once you realize they may actually be relevant to your life. “Follow your dreams!” my daily planner tells me; “Do what makes you happy!” says my ceramic coffee mug. For most, the saturated cheeriness seems only as useful as the caffeine inside.
I began to wonder why we repeat these optimistic sayings so often. I hadn’t realized we were starved for rigged fortune cookies. These small, prepackaged nuggets of good faith seem to fall into the same market as cursive and back-to-school shopping: obsolete provisions meant for a different type of life, enticing but as flimsy as the protractor & compass you never used.
In my confrontation over catchy delusions, I decided to see if it were possible that the (okay, annoying) motivational rhetoric I kept hearing were true, or even possibly useful. The idea of people actually following their dreams baffled me. Actually making a plan and executing on it was as far-fetched to me as getting to outer space, like the background of a “Shoot for the moon!” poster that you zone out at until you’ve convinced yourself that landing amongst the stars really isn’t so bad. I’d become as cynical as the old grumpy teachers who I used to daydream in front of.
I’ve decided to step onto the greener side of the grass, the first essential step in a plan to go beyond the cliches of “happy”, and capture the true positivities of life.
Follow me as I launch the next essential content in authentic travel & exploration. You may want to walk a little faster. In an ode to the optimism that is necessary for exploration, we’re here to help you and your favorite group text enjoy the best travel hints and hikes, off-course recommendations and three-course reviews. If we’re lucky, we’ll both find new mottos.
Signed,
Mel