Before the pandemic hit, I was busy every day. I had a nonstop schedule that involved marketing and planning events, attending and socializing at events, and finally escaping to the mountains whenever I could find a free day actually to unplug (rarely).
Then my endless routine was instantly halted by Covid lockdowns and the rest of the world. I found myself lying on the couch for hours with racing thoughts and feeling the existential doom. I’m not special; this happened to everyone but in different ways.
But for me, the career and lifestyle that I had evolved into were shockingly interrupted because it was a non-essential industry. It was one of the most non-essential that it could get – events and entertainment.
It took me a long time to really be able to stop existential dread and dig myself out of a hole to start finding things I like again. I started drawing. I went on bike rides. Then I found the energy for new things like skiing. But before those fun pandemic projects was darkness, depression, and feeling lost. During this period of time when the world froze, I started to self-reflect.
Who am I? What makes me happy? What is the meaning of life? What is most important to me in life?
I believe these are questions many of us pondered. I think that much of society needed the reset. We realized life is short and to cherish the small moments with loved ones. We realized sometimes you really should stop to smell the flowers.
During my personal life crisis of losing my job, identity, and motivation to get up for the day, I started reading self-help books. I bought the best-selling books that many of my millennial peers have sworn by, and I can honestly say they helped. I read books like “The Happiness of Pursuit,” “The Breakthrough Experience,” and my personal favorite, “You Are A Badass.”
I reconnected with myself and started to be okay again – just as things started to go back to “normal”
I had adjusted to homebody life. I was working remote freelance jobs and had the chance to reconnect with myself, just as many of us did. I had many pandemic projects, such as learning to ski, starting an e-commerce brand, converting a camper van with my partner, and traveling to National Parks.
Eventually, though, events and entertainment slowly returned, and I eagerly dedicated my time and efforts to push forward fun again. After nearly two years of social distancing, people needed a place to reconnect through art and music, and I was happy to help serve the cake of that post-pandemic renaissance feeling. However, jumping back into the chaotic lifestyle that I had once been so fitting to be almost just as hard as the interruption. It was 0 to 100 all over again.
I was back to the burnout of my pre-pandemic lifestyle. Life was back to that overworked pace, except I was more in tune with myself this time. I began to burn out, and I knew I needed a change. The feeling of re-winding back to my lifestyle 16 months ago was confusing.
It felt like a facade.
One night I was lying in bed watching this random show about vacation homes on Netflix. It had my favorite content creator influencer celeb, Megan Batoon, who I discovered when she recorded herself trying to mimic a video of another one of my favorite hoopspiration influencers slaying a hula hoop.
The show “World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals” made me think to myself, “Wow, if I could have any job in the world, I want to travel to the most amazing places and do an episode about it, like Megan or Anthony Bourdain.”
THAT was the thought I had been soul searching to find for months.
Prior to the pandemic, my “ if I could do anything thought” was consumed by my passion for music, and I had successfully turned that passion into a career as a music blogger and marketing professional. I loved it, and I lived it. But I was burnt out. So I found a new job that is less demanding and less stressful, and where I have nights and weekends to focus more on my passions.
Through all this soul-searching rumination bullshit, I have decided to ignite my travel passion in a new way – through a travel youtube channel, Lacy Wanderlust.
Yes, it took me nearly 10 years after going to college for journalism and telecommunications to get over my fear of being on camera and putting myself out there. But, every Youtuber I have watched that talks about these feelings when starting a channel. Then their advice is to ‘just get content out there, even though it won’t be very good.’ They say posting that first video is the hardest one.
So here it is, Episode 1: Off-Roading To Crystal Mill Ghost Town & Leaf Peeping Aspens | Colorado Bucket List
Enjoy! More videos coming very soon 🙂
Xo Lacy Wanderlust
