Hey, I'm Leah.
and I have mixed feelings about the fact that this blog exists.
It’s probably a combination of the following: fear of judgment, fear of representing myself as someone who embraces vapid self-promotion, fear of learning in public, fear of putting my heart on my sleeve and no one caring to read more than the first few lines. Still, I see so many other people in my social network sharing their passions and imperfections, and I want to be as brave as they are.
I started this blog in 2019, after I’d returned from two months roaming across Europe only $2000 poorer than when I’d started. I posted some highlights of the trip on Instagram and received a warm welcome back to the States with a flooded inbox of questions from people I hadn’t spoken to in ages.
How did I do it?
How did I do it on a struggling actor’s budget?
How did I do it alone?
One of my friends pointed out that the combination of my love for storytelling and my love for photography would be perfect for a travel blog. I’d be able to monetize my hobby, fund these adventures, and support other broke artists in the process.
I hated the idea almost as much as we all hate capitalism.
Almost as much as I hate travel blogs.
I couldn’t imagine advertising myself or 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 market, but it seems content sticking around with all the other things I sneak into my carry-on.
Maybe that speaks volumes about my conditioning as a woman, or my vantage point from a few notches 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 transcultural 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 baseline knowledge about moving through the world].”
Sometimes it’s humbling, sometimes it’s humiliating, but it’s almost always motivating. I want to get this right. I want to navigate 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 wild things you’ve dreamed of, and a blueprint for sparking enough creativity to actually make it work.
Happy planning<3
Check out my alter ego @
www.leahsanginiti.com
