All About YOU: Letters from My Readers / Volume 6

…Aaand here we are back again with my ‘All About You’ series where I especially give the spotlight to you guys! As such, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the amazing people below for sharing their stories with me ♥

Do you want to publicize your story too in this ‘All About You’ series? If you have ever been inspired by a destination, hotel, activity, or trip that I wrote about, AND/OR if you have ever been inspired to travel or do anything because of my blog articles — come send me a message here along with a high-res landscape photo of yourself and a brief note regarding your journey or situation, and I would absolutely LOVE to include your story in this series!

With that said and done, here are the 5 recent letters that I’ve received and loved!

All About You: Letters from my Readers

» Joanna: A letter and photo from Japan

I am 25 years old and I graduated college in 2013. I’ve since been working in the financial industry — somewhere I never even imagined I’d be. I have wanted to start my own official travel/photography blog ever since I had my first Xanga back around 2008 but… I never knew where to start. That is, until I saw one of your articles and that was the final push I needed to get going.

In one of your articles, you mentioned the top groups to join and having active groups to be a part of to ask questions, get advice and share my own lessons to help others gave me the inspiration to start my blog. That week, I researched where I wanted to host my website, bought a username and just started from there. I have a long way to go but I am excited for the journey ahead! I cannot wait to meet fellow travel bloggers, both online and in person from all around the world to exchange stories and experiences.

And your biggest article that I have read and got really personal to me is your section about who you were in the past before quitting your job. Almost every word you said in there is how I feel or have felt in the past.

I have grown up in a family that is very practical. It is all about going to school, getting the right degree and finding the one safe corporate job where you get that paycheck every two weeks, good benefits, 401k, etc. etc. But I don’t want to do that! I want to wake up every day super excited about where I am and what I will be doing. I hate feeling like a robot in the corporate world.

The other really hard part for me to just get up and go is how close my family is. Growing up, we had “family day” every Sunday where we would all go out together or go over to my grandparent’s house. I didn’t like this as a kid because I just wanted to go out with my friends — but as I got older, I really started to appreciate this. I have always been so close to my family and we still get together almost weekly. I do not want to miss out on my little cousins growing up but I cannot have them be the only part of my life. But today, I have set a goal that I will do for myself: by 2018, I will start my trip across the country to California and start exploring there for a little while before continuing to move on all across the globe!

Joanna is originally from the USA. You can learn more about her over at at Expedition Jojo.

» Aurika: A letter and photo from the Philippines

I want to say “Thank you!” for your inspirational and amazing articles. I’m an avid reader of your blog and have been following some of your ultimate guides! I could see the life that I dream of in those articles and hopefully, I’ll be able to fulfill that dream life soon.

But yeah, I just want to let you know that you made me do the things that I thought I cannot do just yet because I’m too scared to try. By following your steps, my life became better and I’m happier now! In fact, last year, I didn’t travel outside the Philippines because I want to experience what our country Philippines could offer first. So as for my upcoming travel goal, I am now brave enough to apply for US and Japan visas!

Hope to get approved and be able to roam around my dream countries. Again, thank you! Because of you, I’m able to start fulfilling my dreams one by one.

Aurika is originally from the Philippines

» Jewel: All about you from Greece

I wanted to take a second to say thank you because you helped me make a travel blog. This past week, I was thinking of traveling as much as I can this year while completing my freshman year of college.

Sometimes it can be hard to get up and go somewhere when you are stressed about a test or anything school-relate, but I ended up stumbling upon your ‘How to Make a Travel Blog from Scratch‘ article on Pinterest. I figured making a travel blog would be a good step into getting the life of travel I want!

Now, I have a legitimate blog and I cannot wait to keep posting about my love for adventure and travel. So yes, without you this literally would not have happened! So, really, thank you! I just wanted to let you know I have been inspired by your blog and I look towards it as a model of where I want to be. Your posts are effortlessly charming and genuine. I can not wait to try and grow my blog to see where it takes me!

Jewel is originally from the USA. You can learn more about her over at at Jewel Abroad.

» Andi: All about you and photo from the Philippines

I didn’t really think of sending a letter like this since I met your blog… I actually was a silent reader and was just browsing your website almost every week just to see the beautiful layout and nice contents. But now, I had the courage to send this!

I actually just started my blog started but it took too long before I get to the first step of creating it because of too much hesitation in my life. “Will people read my blog? Will people appreciate my writing? Will people follow my updates? Will I get bashers because I am not good at this stuff?” And much more…

But my friend all of sudden told me, “Hey! Check this out.” Then boom, your page loaded and I fell in love immediately with your beautiful website and your guide post. I read through it, and thought hard about it. And finally, I decided to get a domain for my blog. I gotta say, I was very inspired with your adventure and how you left the corporate world to pursue traveling. As for my case, I cannot yet, because I am a breadwinner and I need constant flow of money for our needs. But this doesn’t mean I cannot travel anymore, right? That’s why you’ve made it possible for me to break out from this hesitation and pursued travel budget while blogging it. I am happy I met your blog. More power to you and have a happy life always!

Andi is originally from the Philippines. You can learn more about him over at at Wizard Andi

» Jane: A letter and photo from Europe

You are truly an inspiration for every Filipina traveller out there. In the first place, you have inspired me in so many ways and it would be awesome to let everyone know how you have inspired me!

In fact, last year, I launched my blog and I was figuring out a lot of other stuff like my niche and content — but reading your blog helped me get it started. I was also applying for schools in UK to get closer to my travel dream destination: Europe! And I can still remember when I e-mailed you months ago regarding about ways to extend a tourist visa without coming home for a year or two. Haha! To add, I have also been looking into being a full fledged digital nomad and I’m studying all those sites you have mentioned in one of your articles.

All in all, through your blog, I’m sure I can finally achieve my dreams… slowly but surely. So a huge THANK YOU to you, Aileen!

Jane is originally from the Philippines.

» Send me your letters!

This goes without saying but I DO love reading your letters — I love it so much that I want to share it with the rest of the world (hence the reason for why this series was born)! To add, it always brings me joy to learn more about you guys.

So again…

• If you have ever been inspired by a destination, hotel, activity, or trip that I wrote about; and/or,
• If you have ever been inspired to travel or do just about anything because of my blog articles

…come send me a message along with a high-res landscape photo of yourself and a brief note about your journey or situation to be a part of the All About You series.

I would absolutely LOVE to include your piece in this series and tell your story. I look forward to your emails!