There comes an awkward moment in every travel blogger’s life where this crazy thing happens: they stop traveling. Maybe temporarily, maybe for the long-term, or maybe forever. They find it difficult to tell stories from their travels when, at that moment, there are no travels to talk about.

I hit that wall last week. I was flipping through some pictures and footage from this past year, reminiscent and all, and I went to the drawing board to blog about something. Some story from my travels that stuck out, some trending topic in the industry, or some other tale that’d recently crossed my mind.

Honestly, it just didn’t feel write (pun intended, indeed). Nothing was popping into my brain. Writing about travels from the past felt almost fake, or as if it would be an injustice to my experiences. The art of story-telling about travel is a tricky one, and I’ve found that my stories are best told when brought up naturally in conversation, or when they connect to some idea relevant to other aspects of life, both yours and mine.

And that got me thinking. I don’t want this blog to just be something that you all come to whenever I’m writing about an adventure I’m on–these will likely happen often in my future, but realistically speaking, I can’t be traveling all the time. It just isn’t sustainable in terms of finances, relationships, and sanity. And, I realize this (as much as my mom seems to think I don’t). I want this blog to serve as both a storybook and a resource for those with a burning desire to travel. I want to help inspire others to take a trip, to take it alone, to go somewhere off-the-beaten-path, and to seek and discover the mountains…alllll the mountains.

But, it doesn’t stop there: who I am as a person embodies so much more than just my travels. I am a traveler, yes, but I am also a deep thinker, a non-conformist, a person with unique dreams and no fear to pursue them. This blog began as a concept: Leah versus the world, as in a 20-year-old girl with a mission to see many different places in the world. Over the past year, this has evolved into something more. Leah versus the world is a grand idea of a girl against the world: its destinations, yes, but also its ideologies and expectations, its population and the diverse ways in which they think and live their lives. This isn’t just be a travel blog anymore–this is a website, consisting of my travels, thoughts, ideas, and human content. There is so much more to life than traveling to new countries.

So…now what?

I bought a domain. I changed the blog’s theme (again). I learned how to make fancy social media buttons and put them at the bottom of every page. I started adding fancy tabs on the top of the page that will (eventually) be filled with content, including a big fat guide to China, how to plan an off-the-beaten-path itinerary, how to take the plunge and make a solo trip, and so on.

I’m learning skills in my marketing classes about social media tactics, expanding your online audience, and creating, strengthening, and ultimately selling your personal brand. I’m beginning to plan random adventures in Central Illinois to help better market my college town to a broader audience. I’m beginning plans for more YouTube videos using my hours and hours of footage from my semester abroad.

I’m planning future adventures, from 5 days in Seattle to 3 weeks in Southeast Asia. I’m starting to examine my post-graduation options: a 3-month solo trip, a 12-month multi-country rotational program, a 27-month volunteer stint, a typical corporate job in one of my ideal American or Chinese cities.

For now, my travels are over. Or, rather, they’re on hold. At this point in my life, I have determined something crucial: my travels will never really be over. To be honest, still feet are just not for me. Throughout the course of my life, I hope for my travels to take me to the far and odd corners of the earth, bringing me in contact with fascinating and unique people. I hope that they will continue to help me grow, like they’ve done so wonderfully in these past few years. But I guess, above all, I hope that they can leave some mark on this world, or rather, some mark on one individual person. I hope this website will serve as something of value to you in the next few years. One mark on one person, one change in one person’s life–that is the single greatest accomplishment I could ever strive for.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more retrospection. Adventures await us.