Almost as much as I hate travel blogs.

I couldn’t imagine advertising myself—pretending I had any authority over anything, even my own experiences. I’m the type who assumes the person I’m arguing with is right, who’s terrified of offending strangers and stepping on the toes of anonymous audience members. I’ve spent years thinking I can escape Imposter Syndrome by hiding out in a remote European forest or crowded spice market, but it seems content on behaving like a clingy ex.

Maybe that speaks volumes about my conditioning as a woman, or my vantage point from somewhat far down on the American caste hierarchy. But as an American, to think my privileged place in the world deserves even more of a platform when discussing issues of cross-cultural exchange is…well, let’s say it’s taken a lot of effort to hit Publish.

Speaking of which: I finally did just that in early 2020. You know, just a couple of weeks before everything changed and all my advice was rendered obsolete. I tried not to take it as a sign that I’d wasted my time, that ~*~The Universe~*~ was giving me an out so I could put my energy into something less menacing toward the boundaries of my comfort zone. A year later, I think the real lesson here was that life as we know it can end at any moment, so f***ing SHARE YOUR ART.

Some of my posts are clickbait-y, semi-vapid listicles interspersed with hard truths I’ve learned from years of backpacking alone. I try to update them as I make new discoveries; when I look back at what I’ve written and think, “Wow. I was in a really different place then. I genuinely didn’t know or care about [fill in the woke blank].”

Sometimes it’s humbling, sometimes it’s humiliating, but it’s almost always motivating. I want to get this right. I want to move through the international sphere with as much grace as a colonized-colonizer can muster. I want to share all of the beauty I’ve experienced in countries I’ve found unrecognizable when compared to their dominant Western narrative, and shed light onto the shadows of the ones we glorify.

Most importantly, I want to give you what it took years to gather for myself: the courage to go do the crazy things you’ve been dreaming of doing, and a blueprint for sparking enough creativity to actually make it work.

The world as we once knew it may never return, but we as sure as hell will have good stories to share one day with gawking locals who ask how we carry our American guns through international airport security.*

Happy planning<3

*Actual question

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www.leahsanginiti.com