The Future of The Department of Wandering

Let’s face it. Travel blogging is a pretty amazing job. I wake up every morning so unbelievably grateful that I’ve been able to build a business around doing what I love most: travelling. Travel isn’t just a chance to escape our everyday; it broadens our minds (and hearts) in totally unforeseeable ways and teaches us a heck of a lot about ourselves. There’s no classroom on the planet that can provide that kind of education.

I’ve been travelling for over a decade now; the bug bit me back when I was at university. Since then, I’ve been to 30 countries and have lived in Melbourne, Berlin, London and LA. Almost four years ago, I launched The Department of Wandering to share my travel experiences and provide useful resources for other adventurers. Since then, the blog has blossomed into a hub of travel inspiration, advice and guides and we’ve expanded into a global team of contributors. Travel has taken me a long way that’s for sure (pun totally intended).

The future of The Department of Wandering:

But something has been on my mind lately. Is this kind of lifestyle (and the blog) sustainable?

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As you might know, I’ve now reached a stage of my life where I don’t just want to think about me anymore. Travelling the world and skipping from one destination to the next is incredible but its no longer enough. Travel will always be a huge part of my life (don’t get me wrong), it’s just that there are other things that have started to call to my heart besides booking airline tickets.

I want to make a home. I want to nest. And I want to have a baby.

And I think, no I KNOW, that it’s going to turn my life upside down. Last year when I was pregnant, I can’t even begin to describe to you how it affected my work. I was irritable, exhausted and just plain uninterested in doing any kind of work. Just the sight of my inbox made me angry, like it was a personal affront. And then, when everything with the miscarriage happened, I couldn’t bring myself to do any real work for weeks. Safe to say, my productivity absolutely nosedived for a while there. And if that’s what it’s like during pregnancy, it’ll be a thousand times harder when there’s an actual human baby around.

But you know what? That’s totally okay. Whatever comes, I’m going to roll with it.

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The last few months have taught me that I need to write about what it’s like to go through all these new things. I need to reveal what’s in my heart (that’s why I’m writing this post today) because I can’t hide it away. To do so would be insincere and inauthentic. Writing also helps me process things and deal with change, to sort through the whirr of thoughts and emotions swirling around in my head.

And as I grow and change and enter new stages of life, I don’t want to feel like I have to keep certain things to myself, that they don’t ‘fit’ The Department of Wandering. I want, I need, to write about it all.

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I started doing a bit of this last year, writing about my grief, reflecting on lessons the year taught me, and sharing my precious wedding photos. None of this content was travel-related but these were some of the most important posts I wrote all year. They also seemed to be the posts that readers connected with the most too.

So, in this coming year, I want to share more of my personal journey. Bloggers are always told that they should ‘niche down’, to focus only on a very small angle. But I’m throwing the rule book away and plan on doing the opposite. I want to talk about so much more than travel because, honestly, life is simply so much more multi-layered than that. I’m evolving and I want The Department of Wandering to evolve with me.

Don’t worry, travel is still going to be the pillar that holds this blog up. It’s a huge part of my life and always will be. Even when I have a family, don’t think the adventures will stop (although, I’m sure we’ll travel differently). I have endless ideas for new blog posts I want to write and I also have a team of international contributors publishing new and exciting content every week. Most of the posts you’ll read on here will remain travel-related, it’s just that it will be in interspersed with a few other kinds of posts too.

I hope you’ll stick around and share the journey ahead with me, wherever it may lead.

Looking for more reflective posts like this? Check out these ones next:

• I Got Married But I’m Not Changing My Name. Here’s Why.
• What NOT to Say to Someone After a Miscarriage
• What I Read in 2017: A Book Review

I’d love to hear your thoughts on where The Department of Wandering is headed.

Please share them in the comments below.

Disclosure: this post is in collaboration with Tobi but as always, all opinions remain my own.