Leveling Up: TRAVEL IS NOT LIFE!

Updated: Aug 6, 2018

There is a large grey area between doing TOO much and just being flat out lazy. After a near fatal car accident in March of 2017, it seems like I have danced the tango over, around and through that grey area! Now that I am bringing the surgical chapter of my life to a close, it's time to get back into the flow of things! This is part one in a series that will document my journey of literally "Leveling Up" after being forced to hit the pause button for almost a year and a half!

At one point I really felt like travel was life. I had been blessed to have a great job that not only paid me to travel, allowed me to keep the travel points, but also afforded me the opportunity -when I had time off- to bring my family along for the ride as well!. You couldn't tell me I wasn't living my best life!

At that point, traveling was my happy place, and if you know anything about me- I am typically a pretty happy person- because I do the things that make me happy as often as possible. On our family vacation to the Dominican Republic this year, I made a promise to myself that I would be serious about building the FlyyGirl brand. So on Feburary 19th I launched this site, FlyyGirlAdventures.com and began sharing my travel stories, doing hotel reviews and searching for my next travel high (which to me is finding a cheapy-cheapy flight somewhere with a beach and a hotel for the free;).

After the car accident my ability to travel independently was severely limited- but of course I still pressed myself down the jet bridge and pushed on despite of the pain. I went on a solo trip to Jamaica on crutches and took my family to my favorite oasis in the Dominican Republic for my birthday. Eventually I couldn't ignore the pain anymore, when I realized that it was hindering me from really getting the full experience of my trips, thats when I knew it was time to sit it on down for a minute. I was forced to press pause on my travel dreams for a season so that I could get the healing that I needed. Did life as I knew it cease to exist because I wasn't catching a flight? Absolutely not! Did I shrivel up a die because I missed out on Carnival in Trinidad? Well, my wallet wasn't happy, but life continued to go on for me and eventually things did get better.

I had to learn that while traveling gives you the chance to EXPERIENCE life and make long-lasting memories- it is not life. See its not the materialistic things that make life worth living. At its most stripped down bare bones form, life is the act of living, breathing and making the most of our circumstances. As much as I love the beach, whether I make it this summer, or never see it again, as long as I am able to love myself, give back to others within reason and chase my dreams- I am livin'!

In my downtime, an even greater vision was birthed for Flyy Girl Adventures- a nonprofit arm called FlyyGirlFly which seeks to encourage, empower and uplift young FlyyGirls in Detroit to put their dreams to flight and fly into their destiny. I realized that my calling was to encourage women of all ages on their journey- whether it led them around the globe, to be an world renown artist, or small business owner; their journey is important and will no doubt encourage and empower the next woman along the way! Instead of solely focusing on the destination or the big successes I decided that I wanted to show the world that the biggest adventure we can take in life is to follow our dreams.

This FlyyGirl thing is more than just a travel blog or fun hobby- it is my passion and purpose. Each day that it continues to grow and develop, I know that it is truly what I was sent here to do. When you are your only competition and you beat yourself, the amount of confidence, self-esteem and personal fulfillment you get in return is difficult to put into words.

When I first launched this site, I was producing 4 to 5 articles, a hotel review or two and several social media posts a week. However, with all the surgeries and other setbacks I faced this summer- I was happy to find the inspiration to write even one article a month! Luckily for me I was still was able to pull together some semblance of a blog via social media- but my vision is much bigger than a few posts on Instagram.

Getting myself "togetha" will require more than just goal setting. It will take self-discipline, consistency and courage. Moving forward, I want to be even more targeted in my approach with SEO's, collaborating with other brands and building my email list. To aid with this goal I will consider partnering with a master data management service like Profisee that makes it easier for small businesses to build and manage their data lists. In this series I will review various data management, social media and planning tools to see whether they live up to their name and if they might be of some use to my followers.