Welcome to the newest addition to the blog: my travel segment. As a girl who very rarely travelled or saw many exciting things, and longingly dreamed that she would one day be the one taking the leap and jumping on that plane to go far and wide across oceans and mountains to see the world, this is my loveletter to the places I have been, and ones I look forward to seeing soon in this lifetime.

A Childhood Dream

Probably the best way to kick start this would be giving you a little inside scoop on an exciting travel destination, and one that every child who grew up watching Disney Channel from this side of the pond dreamed of going to. 

The United States of America.

I remember being sat in Frankie and Benny’s with my family. We had probably just finished watching a film at good ol’ Cineworld when I mentioned to my dad about travelling to America. I was only little, maybe 7 or 8. And I had a dream that I wanted to travel to the USA, more specifically, I wanted to go to California and see Los Angeles, the City of Angels (side note – anyone seen Buffy? It really is the City of Angels).

Rock Bottom to Takeoff

Fast forward a couple decades, I make little me’s dream of going to the land of the dreams true. I was in my last term of finishing my Master’s, going through a horrific break-up with an asshole, and had zero idea what to do with my life. I genuinely thought my life was over. There’s nothing quite like a horrific break up from a horrifying human to make you feel like the world is ending.

So, what did I do?

Moved half way across the world for the summer.

And it was the best decision that I ever made.

Maybe ‘Someday’

As someone who always spoke about travelling, I never actually did it. I would tell people my dreams are to travel and see the world but the most I did was wishfully look at places from my phone screen, favouriting them, and thinking: ‘I’ll go there someday’.

Until I made someday a reality.

Summer ‘23 was my summer.

It was the first time I ever went somewhere that was longer than a four hour plane trip. It was the first time I’ll be staying in a different country for longer than 10 days.

And I did it all alone.

That was something which I had never done before. I had never travelled that far alone. I had never done much of anything alone.

But this was different. This was moving to the States for 3 months to be a Camp Counsellor for the summer.

Spite As A Motive? Sure.

I was the only one in my immediate family to travel to America, let alone move there for 3 whole months to work. It caused a bit of a rumble in the family:

“You won’t stay that long.”

“You’ll come home after a week!”

“You won’t like it there.”

“It’s dangerous!”

I know spite is probably not the best motive for doing something, but it damn well fuelled me to get my arse on that plane and not set foot on English soil until the end of the summer.

Small Travel Hiccups

That’s not to say that I didn’t have those thoughts about packing it all in and getting on the next plane home to my teddies. The start to my summer wasn’t the most conventional. I was in a car crash just a week into the first session which of course made me want to run home to my mum and dad. But I stuck it out. And it was the best decision I made.

I could go on and on about my summer in America, and I’ll definitely be writing more blogs about it as people start prepping for their upcoming summers.

No Regrets, Only Loveletters

But this was just the start of my series of loveletters to the places I have been and seen, as well as a see you soon to the others on my list.

For anyone wondering whether a summer in the States is for them, just ask yourself this.

What do you really have to lose?

It is probably one of the safest ways to get yourself out there, to travel and meet so many incredible people from all over the world, and to throw yourself into things you never thought you would do.

There is not a single thing that I regret about my summer in the States. Only that I wish I could go back again and again and again.

Maybe next summer.