Age Ain't Nothing But A Number, Still...
"I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act." ---Janet Mock, Writer, T.V. Host, and Transgender Activist
Age ain’t nothing but a number, but what a number! 14! My number is fourteen. I launched this blog in January, 2017, and have written fourteen posts over the course of twelve months, and I am over-the-moon as I celebrate my one-year anniversary!
Feminist Footprints: Travel With A Feminist Eye was born of fear, confusion, and fuck it. Oh, and anal retention. I am a woman who finds it very difficult to do something without a purpose or many layers. So basically, in 2016, (really it was around 2005, it just took me a super long time to realize it) life had me by the throat and I needed a change. I needed to rescue myself from a job---bartending---that had supported me, given me a very decent life, but was slowly sapping my spirit and will to live.
After I floundered through two plus years of interviewing brilliantly (yeah, I said it) and being denied, desperate to transition from the restaurant industry to something where my livelihood didn’t hang on someone else’s mood, I knew I had to start thinking outside the box. Outside the box is code for outside of my comfort zone and my beloved NYC.
If you’ve followed the blog over the last year, you know that a good friend’s whisper campaign finally convinced me to cross off a bucket list item and move abroad. I always thought it would be Paris, but it turned out to be a sleepy port town in South Korea, which I love. But before I made the decision to leave my beating heart---NYC--- I felt compelled to make my choice bigger, imbue it with more meaning, more vision. True to form, I couldn’t just move to Sacheon to teach English, I needed it to be a broader plan, a plan with a purpose, if you will.
I’ve been a writer since age 9, and most decisions I make in some way or another involve writing. So as I was considering making the jump across the world, I thought about what I love, what I return to again and again and realized that it’s writing, traveling, civil rights, and women’s equality. These are the four things which animate me, fill me, and balance me, no matter what is going on around me.
With this knowledge, I started brainstorming: what could I do in addition to teaching ESL that would combine writing, travel, civil rights, and women’s equality and also make me happy, animate me, fill me, and balance me? The answer came surprisingly quick: start a feminist focused travel blog where I share two decades of explorations, current adventures on my new continent, and the experiences of other women who travel solo. And so... Feminist Footprints: Travel With A Feminist Eye was born.
Over the past year, I have written about putting on my big girl panties and braving the Aegean Sea alone (Greece, 1994), choosing between a hot guy and dignity (London, 1994), almost being arrested in the Madrid airport (Spain, 1996), and traveling while being a woman of a certain age (Lisbon 2017). I even launched a sub blog feature which I call “Interludes”, where I stop navel gazing and explore other topics and bring in different voices, especially those of feminist activists and artists. I started with writer and activist Maureen Shaw and am excited to do at least two more this year.
Feminist Footprints is still in its infancy, its voice a whisper lost among a coterie of smarter, better informed, and more established howls, thus far, but I hope, as the word gets out and the blog finds more fellow travelers and supporters, it will also find its footing (sorry), its place in the dynamic world of feminist dialog and human rights.
But whether it remains something that a few loyal fans enjoy or breaks out onto a wider platform, it has been a joy to sit down every month and dream about the next destination while happily reminiscing about where I’ve been and the crazy, fun, and enlightening experiences I’ve had traveling the world and seeking out powerful women and their stories.
I am forever grateful for my passport, my gumption in the face of my fear, and my friends, wherever I may find them out in the world. Thank you for taking the journey with me.
Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to come back in February when I land in a new country and survive new shenanigans!
Remember, be kind to one another, keep on traveling with a feminist eye, and keep on being Feminist AF!
