Today is our official launch!! I know I know, congratulations to us. Thank you, Thank you. You’re far too kind.

But really, what does that mean?! Well pragmatically, it means we’re officially spamming the $#@! out of everyone we know so you’re all aware that there’s something happening in our lives. We’re very sorry. We promise it’s the first and last time. It’s kind of a big deal in our insignificant (universally speaking) little lives. We hope you’ll join us on our journey!

In reality it means we’re super excited but nervous. For us it’s a giant leap of faith. We know that once we do it we’ll feel that immediate sense of relief and freedom that starts in your chest that you know so well if you’re ever cliff jumped, or sky-dived ,or made a drastic change in your life, but that wonderful opening of the chest only gets to come after the initial nervous feeling that makes you want to curl up in a ball and tells you there is no real good logical reason to do what you’re doing.

[Tweet “There’s a tiny little moment before the fear sets in, and that’s your opportunity to take the leap”]

You’ve seen those people, the ones that stand on the edge of the cliff and go to jump but then hold back at the last minute. They walk to the edge and look down, they sit again and try to compose themselves, they get up once more but over-think it again and again and just can’t seem to be able to do it. The thing is that there’s a tiny little moment before the fear sets in, and that’s your opportunity to take the leap, and if you miss that little window, chances are the adrenaline will start getting your heart pumping, your body will feel it and rationalize that you’re scared (it never rationalizes you’re excited!! silly body) your fright or flight response will set in and because there’s nowhere to run everything shuts down and you paralyze with fear, and chances are you’ll get stuck on top of that cliff unless there’s a way to walk back the way they came

What’s your point Jade?! Well,  for the past few months we’ve been building the foundations of our blog. All the behind the scenes dirty work that travel bloggers rarely talk about. All the signing up for the millions of social media accounts, all the coding, all the online research, the “what’s SEO”, the “what’s wordpress”, the “what’s a framework”, the “wait what?!?! there’s a robot for that?!?!?”, the endless hours of work that amount to no visual changes on your blog….. that’s been us. That part is like climbing up to the top of the cliff. But now if we want to fly we have to take that leap of faith… and yeah, the website isn’t as pretty as it could be, and yeah, our content is kind of lacking still, and yeah, we haven’t worked out all the bugs, and yeah, we still have no followers on google+, but the point is that at this moment, delaying the launch any further would just be the kind of procrastination that keeps you stuck on top of that cliff. After this point you start thinking it’s not safe enough.. maybe they’ll laugh at us, who are we to think we can compete with Nomadic Matt, this logo should be up a few more pixels, I haven’t found the right social media icons, etc.. etc.. etc..

“wait what?!?! there’s a robot for that?!?!?”

So we’re doing it. We’re taking the leap. We admit we’re not perfect, we’re hoping there are no holes in our parachute and we’re saying goodbye to the comfy life on the cliff and hello to the endless opportunities we are about to fly into. We’d love your feedback by the way! hate our color scheme? don’t like the format, love a specific post?!? Whatever it is let us know because we’ll be making a lot of changes over the next year and we want it to be a reflection of us, but meanwhile appealing to you! So help us get started in the right direction!

What does this mean for us? Well Gabriel is serious about photography. He’s just invested in some new gear that will be arriving from the states shortly and he can’t wait to get his hands on it. I’m serious about writing. I’m a little rusty around the edges but I’m the kind of person who loved essay writing in college, writing has always been my preferred means of expression and I’m really excited at the prospect of making it my main source of expression. Together, we’re hoping this is what we can do ‘when we grow up’…. express ourselves and our views of the world through words and images.

It’s a bit different than applying for job applications and hoping you’ll get hired. I’ve been down that road a million times (well less than a dozen actually) and I never hated interviews, but I always felt like I was helping someone else live their lives better and moulding my answers to be the person they wanted me to be, not who I was.. Having said that, once hired, you know your hours, you know your pay, you know your benefits, “you’re set” as they say.

[Tweet “The freelance world in general is full of unknowns, but so is the travel lifestyle…”]

And that’s really why they go hand in hand so well, and that’s why we’re so excited about it.

Adopting a travel lifestyle and starting a travel blog as your career is different. (is this an understatement?) There isn’t one interview, there are millions, everyday. Every comment you post, every picture you take, every word you write, everything you re-pin, at every moment every viewer has the choice to follow you, ignore you, or un-follow you. Everything you do is a constant interview process, but this time, you get to be you. This is my preferred choice. The freelance world in general is full of unknowns, but so is the travel lifestyle, and that’s really why they go hand in hand so well, and why we’re so excited about it.

So there you have it. We’ve made the leap, we’ve announced our intentions to the world and we hope for a growing following of real readers to be the wind under our wings. We can’t wait for your feedback and we can’t wait to get to know you. =)

Thanks everyone!