Hey Owlets,
At the beginning of 2020 I sat down to start planning out my year. It's something I've tentatively done before, but this year was going to be the big exciting one. I've been fortunate that in the last year my blog has really taken off and I've started being invited to some incredible trips which meant I actually needed to plan what I was doing, where I was going and when. 2020 was going to be an incredible year for me - I had some amazing collaborations lined up and it was looking like, after my first international press trip last July, I was going to be going on a few more this year to places I'd not had chance to visit before so I was going to be able to bring you some really unique content. Then Coronavirus happened.
In the blogging world people have switched from reviews and destination guides to articles on what to do at home and tips to help your mental health, which is great, but for someone who's completely and utterly travel obsessed, it's hard to write something that you don't get excited to talk about. The one massive taboo that seems to have been introduced, however, is that travel bloggers should absolutely under no circumstances talk about how the lockdown has affected them and their blog as a job, so guess what I'm doing?
In some ways, I'm just like you - I had trips I was really looking forward to that have had to be cancelled, but it's also about losing work. My first international trip of the year was meant to be a 3-day trip to Barcelona to work with a hotel brand; ironically the day we were meant to fly out was the day that the UK government announced lockdown - it felt a little like fate was laughing at me if I'm totally honest. Next to be cancelled was a dream cruise with my family, sailing on a ship that I'd always wanted to go on, followed by two other press trips and countless brand collaborations.
As much as holidays being cancelled is sad, for me the scary thing is feeling so out of control. One day everything was fine, I continued planning my brand work, writing content for the year and sorting out my trips and the next morning I woke up to find that everything had disappeared overnight. I know it's like that for a lot of people, turning up to work to find it's not open anymore and wondering what on Earth they're going to do about paying the bills, but at least when lockdown is over it's quite likely that you will have a job to go back to - tourism is going to be one of the last industries to recover so I know there's a lot of people in our industry wondering if they're going to have jobs to go back to, me included.
One of the weirdest side effects of lockdown, however, is how I feel about being locked down to one town. For someone who's used to travelling pretty much weekly, suddenly being forced to live in the same 2 mile radius feels incredibly odd and it takes a huge shift in mentality to be able to deal with this new normal as a travel blogger. Not a bad odd, I must add, but odd none-the-less. As I write this I can almost hear the comments about how I've had things easy for too long, or that I'm being insensitive to the situation and I'm honestly not trying to be - a lot of you have actually asked what it's been like for me.
One thing I have to say, which I think is true for a lot of people, is that the smallest things have started to mean the most. We drove two junctions down the motorway to drop some groceries into my parents and just seeing another town through the car window was the highlight of my week.
This situation has made me realise how much of an outdoors person I am - not in the way that I want to go camping and I'm suddenly going to relish sleeping outdoors, because that's never going to happen - but I've found that I need to go for walks or sit on the beach for a while for my mind to process things so I can reset.
Despite going stir-crazy I have kind of enjoyed being forced to slow down. Even though, at times, I do find myself getting frustrated over nothing, I'm trying to appreciate this time as much as I can. Even though not being able to go to cafes to work and having your attention pulled away from work every few minutes is difficult to deal with, I'm thankful for being able to spend so much time with the people I care about and I'm trying to make the most of every day by doing different things to make sure we appreciate the time we have together. If this was a normal year I'm not sure where in the world I would be, and I'd be coming home to see my family then leaving again. Being forced to slow down has taught me to appreciate the quiet moments rather than dread them, and has taught me how to make the most of every day, even when I'm not travelling.
As frustrating as I found this situation to start with, it's not a decision that will have been taken lightly. Lockdown happened because it's what was necessary to keep us safe - there's nothing you can do to change this so you have to accept it and find a way to appreciate your time right now, not just thinking about when this ends. I don't know if I'll still have my dream job at the end of this, but I know that this situation isn't going to last forever and I will get to travel again one day, even if it is fitting around a 9-5 job. For now I'm just going to make the most of the quiet moments and appreciate the fact that me, and most importantly my family, are safe and well. I know it's hard to deal with but keep going, we'll get there in the end.
In the blogging world people have switched from reviews and destination guides to articles on what to do at home and tips to help your mental health, which is great, but for someone who's completely and utterly travel obsessed, it's hard to write something that you don't get excited to talk about. The one massive taboo that seems to have been introduced, however, is that travel bloggers should absolutely under no circumstances talk about how the lockdown has affected them and their blog as a job, so guess what I'm doing?
In some ways, I'm just like you - I had trips I was really looking forward to that have had to be cancelled, but it's also about losing work. My first international trip of the year was meant to be a 3-day trip to Barcelona to work with a hotel brand; ironically the day we were meant to fly out was the day that the UK government announced lockdown - it felt a little like fate was laughing at me if I'm totally honest. Next to be cancelled was a dream cruise with my family, sailing on a ship that I'd always wanted to go on, followed by two other press trips and countless brand collaborations.
As much as holidays being cancelled is sad, for me the scary thing is feeling so out of control. One day everything was fine, I continued planning my brand work, writing content for the year and sorting out my trips and the next morning I woke up to find that everything had disappeared overnight. I know it's like that for a lot of people, turning up to work to find it's not open anymore and wondering what on Earth they're going to do about paying the bills, but at least when lockdown is over it's quite likely that you will have a job to go back to - tourism is going to be one of the last industries to recover so I know there's a lot of people in our industry wondering if they're going to have jobs to go back to, me included.
One of the weirdest side effects of lockdown, however, is how I feel about being locked down to one town. For someone who's used to travelling pretty much weekly, suddenly being forced to live in the same 2 mile radius feels incredibly odd and it takes a huge shift in mentality to be able to deal with this new normal as a travel blogger. Not a bad odd, I must add, but odd none-the-less. As I write this I can almost hear the comments about how I've had things easy for too long, or that I'm being insensitive to the situation and I'm honestly not trying to be - a lot of you have actually asked what it's been like for me.
One thing I have to say, which I think is true for a lot of people, is that the smallest things have started to mean the most. We drove two junctions down the motorway to drop some groceries into my parents and just seeing another town through the car window was the highlight of my week.
This situation has made me realise how much of an outdoors person I am - not in the way that I want to go camping and I'm suddenly going to relish sleeping outdoors, because that's never going to happen - but I've found that I need to go for walks or sit on the beach for a while for my mind to process things so I can reset.
As frustrating as I found this situation to start with, it's not a decision that will have been taken lightly. Lockdown happened because it's what was necessary to keep us safe - there's nothing you can do to change this so you have to accept it and find a way to appreciate your time right now, not just thinking about when this ends. I don't know if I'll still have my dream job at the end of this, but I know that this situation isn't going to last forever and I will get to travel again one day, even if it is fitting around a 9-5 job. For now I'm just going to make the most of the quiet moments and appreciate the fact that me, and most importantly my family, are safe and well. I know it's hard to deal with but keep going, we'll get there in the end.
Love and Feathers,
The Owlet 💜
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