Happy International Women’s Day! Up by the Wisdom Tree in LA. •• Part of the reason I started my travel blog years ago was because I wanted to show younger girls that they CAN do it - travel alone, explore the world, go on adventures, move across the globe - without waiting for a man. •• We get so many messages delivered to us, in subtle and more overt ways, that we have to move through our lives under the guidance or protection of men. I cannot tell you how many strong, incredible women I know who have dimmed their power at one point (myself included), to avoid intimidating or driving away a man, to make him feel like the bigger person. •• I look forward to a world where that bullshit ends. I look forward to a world where we don’t have to constantly watch our tone, our dress, our presentation, our actions, where we don’t have to mince our words and walk the finest of lines to avoid having ourselves be cast as someone to be laughed at, not taken seriously, or degraded in a world run by men. •• And I fully believe we can only achieve that world if we start now. If we live in our most unguarded, authentic way, staying true to our own course and our own dreams, and not what the world around us would prefer us to be instead. •• Ladies: each and every one of you - you inspire me every day. . . . . . .