About Travel Notes and Things

You’ve probably had your fair share of over-the-top, down-right INCREDIBLE travel experiences, that gave you a level of clarity, purpose, understanding, confidence, and adrenaline, far from what you have experienced by staying within your comfort zone. 

These were moments that for you, enriched your life in a way that is sometimes hard to describe to others because you realize that travel is not a definition or something you can easily put into words.  It’s a feeling, it’s a mindset, and it’s a lifestyle ultimately. 

By now, you’ve probably had the realization that travel is transformative, and you’re in no way trying to stop the reflections and taking from the lessons and teachings of your days on the road and sky. You know that you want to continue living the lifestyle of a continuous learner, traveler, and always have that same spark of curiosity wherever you go. Even if it’s back “home.” 

Because if there’s one thing I want to tell you right now that I wish someone would have told me the first few times I started traveling and returning home, it would be that the adventure is just getting started. 

Once you start traveling, begin to experience the world, observe your desires while walking the streets of the world, engage in transformative conversations with others, you’ll know that there is a wealth in all of that, and it is meant to be discovered more beyond your travels. It’s meant to be lived and applied to our lives beyond the trip being physically over. 

Would you agree?

Hey! Have we met?

Hey there! I’m Maritza! I’m a travel blogger and content creator for Travel Notes and Things, and I am here to encourage and guide you on how to keep living your travel truths, authentic, free-spirited travel self, and allow that to be your guide in life, especially when you’re not traveling. Let’s talk “reversing” reverse culture shock, how to maneuver post-travel sadness, how you DON’T have to go back home after travel and re-adapt to old ways of being if that doesn’t align with you anymore, and how to do it, and more! I will also share my best travel planning advice, and how to study and teach English abroad if that is an opportunity you’d like to explore yourself.

It’s time to dive deep into your travel moments of expansion, the lessons learned abroad, and self-realization bits, to live with the true freedom that you want. Welcome to Travel Notes and Things.

Here are some of the topics that are discussed here:

• Transformative travel as a way to learn more about what your travels have inspired within you, and how to continue learning from your travels and yourself, beyond the travels.
• The travel mindset as a way to continue seeing the world around you with curiosity, questioning, and wonder, whether you’re traveling abroad, or in your town.
• How to study abroad during college, or how to teach English abroad after college as a way to begin your travels around the world.
• How to travel from home, and tap into the feeling of travel from the comfort of your home.
• How to re-enter your home country in a way that empowers you and helps those around you understand you without imposing their opinions – ya know, that question “So, what are you going to do now?”
• How to manifest travel using the power of visualization, your thoughts and feelings, and how to properly set the intention for abundant travels.
• And so much more!

I thoroughly believe that our travel experiences and truths are just the beginning of something even bigger than we are supposed to create and experience. A deeper message, a truth, a creative venture, something that needs further exploration and that needs to come to life through us as the traveler…are you wondering what that is for you?

Something that was missing for me was a community of like-minded people who had also had transformative travel experiences abroad. As someone who didn’t have access to this, it was a major struggle for me to connect and speak on what I was feeling those first few times I traveled and came back home to my old room, my same town, the same conversations and events that didn’t align with me anymore.

So, if this is you, I encourage and invite you to join The Travel Transformation Facebook group, where you can continue the same transformative travel momentum, inside a community of like-minded individuals.

My transformative travel story

Since I can remember, I’ve had the immense opportunity to travel at a young age, visiting my family in Mexico. I remember the first few memories of those trips feeling so out of place, so uncertain about how everything worked and questioning everything from why the sidewalks looked the way they did, to why most people walked to places instead of driving themselves, especially in the heat of central Mexico. Towards the end of the trip, I didn’t want to leave because there was a feeling deep down that there was no other freedom than that of being in a place where you don’t know how things function and having to figure it out. And the beautiful scenery.

Studying abroad in Greece was an opportunity that came to me years later in college, and became another pivotal moment in my life and growth as a person. This was the first time I had ever traveled to Europe and without my family. It was exciting, uncertain, curious, and spontaneous the way it happened. You can read about how that trip manifested for me here if you’re interested.

After graduating from college with my Sociology/Anthropology degree, I decided I wasn’t done traveling, especially after my experience traveling Greece. Somehow in a magical twist of faith, I ended up with the opportunity to spend a year exploring and living abroad for a year teaching English in Madrid, Spain.

I realized after coming back from each trip, whether it was Mexico, Greece, or Spain, that coming back home was not a pleasant experience. It was actually disheartening. I didn’t know how to help myself process re-entry, there wasn’t much information online at the time, and my family and friends couldn’t understand me, no matter how much they tried.

Enter, Travel Notes and Things – the blog

I thought if there isn’t anywhere or anyone to listen to me vent about how badly I wish to be traveling, or how amazing it is to talk about the personal transformations we experienced, and new perspectives on life and our journeys, then what else could I do?

Write about it! And so I started a blog with not a single idea about blogging, marketing, tech knowledge, and all that comes with starting and maintaining a blog. I knew that would come in time, and I also knew that I needed to get all that I was feeling, out to other people who were possibly experiencing this same thing, and I also wanted to connect to them.

3 years later, the first course, a Facebook group of amazing travelers later, here we are!