Hello again to all my readers! I’m back! Yes, I know…it’s been awhile and I apologize for not writing any sooner. If you haven’t noticed, it’s been a bit quiet on the blog these past few months. To be honest, I’ve been feeling a bit fatigued this fall (read on further to know why!) and needed a break from travel writing before starting up again in 2016. It doesn’t mean I stopped travelling this year though.

2015 has been filled with memorable travel moments – from visiting the shores of Maui in January to exploring the French Mediterranean and Paris in June, with a couple of road trips to Whistler in the summer – one with my girlfriends and another with dear friends of mine visiting from India in July – and then ending with a relaxing week in Cabo, Mexico with my husband in September.

This year has been quite the year where everything in life has seemed to fall into place at the right time – from travelling to career to personal goals.

If there’s one word to sum up my year, it’s “manifestation” – the ability to harness our thoughts, energy and desires into tangible results. Manifestation is a buzzword often heard around spiritual and personal development circles, but until this year I had no idea what it even was or that I was even manifesting my desires–until a friend mentioned that’s what I was doing when opportunities I wanted started coming my way.

I’m still not consciously into manifesting like some people might be (I guess there are “techniques” you can use?). I just put my intention behind what I want and if it’s truly something I desire and am passionate about, I will put in the work to make it happen or to atleast think positive thoughts if it’s not something I can control.

So what dreams have I been able to manifest in 2015 and how does one affect the other?

The Year of Press Trips: Maui + France

Having airfare, hotels, food and activities covered sounds like a dream right? I always thought, “Hey wouldn’t it be nice to have my travel paid for one day?” I don’t get paid for writing or putting in my time for researching and fact checking articles – I just do it because I love to do it. I started Desi Globetrotter in 2012 from a love of sharing my passion for travel with others and a desire to feed my creative side through writing. I never thought having my travel covered could become a reality – hence the ‘manifesting’ part.

One of the perks of being a travel writer/blogger (if you work at it) is there are opportunities to work authentically with magazines (online and print), hotels, tourism boards and other travel-related brands, especially in this digital age, to get the word out about destinations and new offerings and have inside access to dig deeper into stories for readers.

Maui: In 2015, after 10 months of emailing back and forth and meeting in person, I received an invitation from the Maui Tourism Board, inviting me on my inaugural trip to the Hawaiian island to write a story I pitched to them: South Asian Weddings in Maui, a a growing trend. The trip was for 6 days, fully covered, with access to wedding coordinators and on-site managers to get the 411 on Indian weddings taking place on the island.

It took 10 months of emailing, travelling for a week, and another 3 months of writing and having the story published in print. Manifesting desires is still hard work and being professional is of utmost importance – no way of getting around it.

France: Although I’ve had opportunities to work with travel brands within North America, one of my goals was to work with international brands. The opportunity came when I pitched to the France tourism agency. Within three months of initial contact, I was on an airplane, flying business class to Paris then on to Marseille, with 4 established travel writers. This was an intense, but fun week meeting and networking with new people and visiting destinations in France I had never been to before, gathering 34 pages of notes for the three travel stories I wrote post-trip.

I threw my thoughts out to the universe to manifest my desire to work internationally, but it’s hard work that pushed me through to the end.

Manifesting Career Goals to Fit My Personal Lifestyle

In addition to travel writing, I have a career in the arts – my other passion. A year ago I made a big change to move from one arts centre to another – from full-time work (5 days) to part-time work (4 days), a smaller arts centre to a bigger one with more opportunity for growth. Less flexibility to more flexibility. At the time, I accepted a position I was familiar with at this new arts centre, but knew I wanted to move quickly to a different position – I just had to be patient. Again, I put my thoughts out into the universe, and within 8 months the position I wanted all along came about. I interviewed for it and got it!

Not only was the position I wanted now available, but I was moving from a 4 day a week position to a 3 day a week position – exactly what I wanted.

Now what the heck does this have to do with travel writing or blogging you may ask? It gives me flexibility to work on various passion projects related to travel and the arts, flexibility to work on a new passion project I’m launching in 2016 and is conducive to the new lifestyle I’ll be leading in 2016–which now brings me to the BIG news I’d like to share (and the reason I’ve been feeling tired these past few months)….

Introducing Baby Globetrotter

Mr. Desi Globetrotter and I are excited to announce that our Baby Globetrotter will be born in January 2016!!

This will be our first child and we are super excited to continue our life adventures with two tiny feet in tow and you bet I’ll be sharing my passion for travel with our little one.

I was 6 weeks pregnant when baby globetrotter went to France with me and I was 5 months pregnant when we went to Mexico in September. It was pretty special to go on a babymoon and have photos taken abroad in the small town of San Jose del Cabo.

Although no one can be completely ready to have a child, 2015 has really felt like the right year for both personal, professional and travel goals aligning all at the same time.

I’ll be writing another post of what’s to come on Desi Globetrotter in 2016, but for now – take a look back at your 2015 travel goals. Did you unconsciously manifest your travel dreams?