We all know having a child dramatically changes how you live your life, especially for a single mother. For most parents, single or not, just making it through an average day with children is exhausting, so it’s not surprising in the slightest that traveling with our youngsters and struggling with luggage, tickets, strollers, bottles, and toys can be discouraging and even unnerving. But traveling with our little ones is a fantastic way to form lifelong memories, strengthen bonds, and open and educate our children’s minds to cultural diversity.
In the last several months I have been on a personal development journey working on pushing past my fears, discomfort, and essentially transforming my life. Deciding to place traveling the world with my daughter, Brycyn Skye, at the top of my list of priorities has propelled me into a life I never imagined.
During this short journey, I’ve had to learn to love myself. My heart is not completely mended, but pieces of it are no longer strewn across an ice-cold floor. Growing up in a broken home causes such an extreme whirlwind of emotions that it takes years to piece yourself back together, if ever at all. A child is supposed to learn to love through examples set by their parents. When screaming, fighting, and living in constant fear, with eyes constantly full of tears is your norm, you teach yourself to sort of expect that from life.
When I was a child, I envied the other kids at school. They seemed to live such normal, happy lives, the textbook way families were supposed to live. My childhood was less than ideal and left me with many battle scars. Life with my mother was often chaotic, unstable, and depressing, and I longed for the calm stability I experienced at the homes of my friends with parents still happily together.
I did not have the opportunity to travel much. My family didn’t have the want, need, or means for it. Not only that, growing up in South Florida, they felt we lived where most vacationed, and in their minds, a trip to the beach was sufficient.
It wasn’t until I was 19 years old that I left the country for the first time spontaneously embarking on an adventure to Northern Italy. Even the best-laid plans sometimes go off target. Italy wasn’t everything I had hoped and dreamed it would be and my drastic expedition across the Atlantic was short-lived. I can’t say the travel bug hit me then, but as time went on, it snuck up on me.
Inspired by my newfound freedom and yearning to create inimitable memories, I began shifting my mindset and pursuing a life of travel. I have since then visited multiple tropical destinations such as various Bahamian Islands, The Dry Tortugas, and Isla Mujeres, Mexico amongst several other Mexican locales. I’ve swum with whale sharks, dove numerous coral reefs, and watched the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets all over the Caribbean.
My love for travel is just too deep to let motherhood “hold me back”. Instead of continuing to let my past control me, I decided I was fed up with how I was living, was tired of making excuses, and of being held back by my limiting beliefs. There would never be a “perfect” time, and since we all know tomorrow is most definitely not guaranteed, I decided the right time was “now”.
How Do You Afford to Travel?
There are endless options for making a living from your laptop. Learning to make a location-independent income is priceless and I will help teach you exactly how in my future posts.
I hope by sharing my stories and travels, you will be more encouraged and motivated to travel with your children. There is a prosperous lifestyle available bursting with purpose and success if you just make a commitment to think outside the box and not take no for an answer.
So here begins our new adventure together. Girl versus Globe. And who better to embark on a new journey with other than my beautiful Skye and my two best friends Krystina and Shannon who share the same love and taste for living life out of the ordinary. We all share similar ideas and a thirst for adventure, yet dance to the beat of our own drums. We all have something different and unique to bring to the table which is what sets us apart from everyone else. A different point of view from three totally different directions. I couldn’t be more excited about what lies ahead for us!
What else do you want to know?
I am so happy to have you along for this journey. I encourage you to share this post and my future posts with other women who are looking for inspiring mom travel advice and information. I am always open to covering intriguing, beneficial, in-demand topics, so feel free to reach out with any requests you may have at contact@girlversusglobe.com.
