I was always a travel writer. It’s true. Back up to my first grade teacher handing me a blank booklet shortly before my dad took me to China to visit family for the first time: life changed forever.

 

 

Instantaneously I knew I wanted both pictures and hand-written entries filling its pages. My journals quickly became my most prized possessions, objects, projects. Over the years, they evolved through many phases of handwriting, colors, chapters, tables of content, captioning, photo paper.. the list goes on. It was interesting that from a young age I took so seriously what so many hate doing. When the trips were over, it might have been months before I finished writing the final words. I remember my dad would even stay up late just to finish cutting and taping together the photos.

 

 

I’m so glad for this. It didn’t drive me crazy. Instead I fell in love with the work. It held onto so many memories that would otherwise be entire days of forgotten events, of blankness. I can even look up details on significant attractions and the names of people we’ve interacted with.

I’ve come to realize that every move I make will create a story that I’m passionate about collecting. Rick Steves definitely had a big influence on me. My writing always had a tone as if were catering to a larger audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

College had me in a constant effort to get away on breaks and weekends. With pressure to catch up on schoolwork and get ahead during weekdays, I very reluctantly switched to electronic logs of my daily shenanigans: no pictures and fun handwritten fonts, just my iPhone notepad. I knew I had to publish my travel knowledge and share my experiences even if all it ever amounts to is the creation of a new home for my entries. So here I am doing something about it. I hope my readers enjoy and find enough inspiration so that they may seek their own versions of what they have read.

Stay lost,
Vivian