What Is the Wanderlust Romance Lifestyle?
If you've been following me lately, you've probably noticed I've been talking a lot about Wanderlust... Then Wanderlust Romance... And now I've added the Wanderlust Romance Lifestyle.
I swear I am not just making up words because I needed something to put on the content calendar. The truth is, I've been living this thing before I completely knew what to call it.
I'm an author. I travel. I run businesses. I'm a mom, a friend, a homegirl, a founder and somebody's boo. I love a beautiful hotel, a good book, a good meal, my family, my man and a little bullshit from time to time because balance. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, I realized that Wanderlust Romance had grown into something bigger than the books I write.
So what is the Wanderlust Romance Lifestyle?
For me, the Wanderlust Romance Lifestyle is about making room for story, connection, love, travel, pleasure and becoming. It's reading things that make you feel something. Finding people you can actually be yourself around. Going places that stretch the way you see the world. And allowing all of it to change you a little.
That's where Read the Story. Find Your People. Live the Experience. came from.
And before this starts sounding like I have mastered some perfectly soft, beautifully curated life, let me clear that up right now. I am learning this ish in real time.
READ: Sometimes a story shows us something first.
I've always believed romance can do more than give us two people to root for. A good story can hold up a mirror. That's probably why I write the characters I do.
My heroines have lived. They have careers, families, bodies of work, histories, baggage, standards and somebody somewhere depending on them for something. Sound familiar?
They aren't sitting around waiting for somebody to rescue them. But one of the things I am learning in my own life is that not needing rescue does not mean I have to carry everything by myself either.
That's different.
I'm learning that with my characters, and if I'm keeping it all the way real, I'm learning it with my boo too. I'm learning softness. I'm learning how to communicate when something doesn't feel good instead of either swallowing it or letting it grow teeth. I'm learning that loving somebody does not require me to shrink myself to make the relationship easier. And I'm learning that the same thing applies to my business.
Sometimes the story I'm writing teaches me while I'm writing it.
That's part of Wanderlust Romance too.
FIND: Sometimes you need people who get it.
I've become a lot more intentional about who I spend my time with and what kind of spaces I want to be in.
I like being around people who are curious. People who read. People who travel. People who want to learn something, laugh loud, eat well and occasionally say, "You know what? Let's go." Because some of these group chats have been planning the same trip since before COVID and I don't think we're going anymore.
But finding your people is bigger than getting somebody to use their PTO. It's being able to show up as your whole self. Sophisticated today and a little ratchet tomorrow. Quiet when you need to be. Outside when the spirit moves you.
It's being in spaces where you don't have to edit every damn part of yourself before you walk through the door. Community can do that. It can remind you that there are people out here who want some of the same things you do.
LIVE: At some point, you have to actually live some of it.
I love travel. HARD STOP.
But I don't love turning a vacation into an unpaid project-management position with twenty-seven browser tabs open and six hotel comparisons.
Who's flying from where?
Did everybody pay?
Who needs a passport?
Who's sharing a room?
Why am I the only one answering the group chat?
Umm, No Ma'am. I want to enjoy the trip too.
Travel has taught me a lot about what luxury actually means to me now. Sometimes luxury is the room and sometimes it's the view. Sometimes it's the lounge and sometimes luxury is simply ease. Like somebody else carrying part of the load.
It's having choices. It's not automatically paying the first public price you see. It's having enough room in the itinerary to enjoy where you are instead of checking a destination off a list.
And travel keeps changing me. It makes me pay attention differently. It affects how I write places. It changes what I notice about people. It gives me stories. And sometimes it shows me something about myself that I probably would not have learned sitting comfortably at home.
[See how I travel differently.]
And here's the part I'm still learning.
I used to think taking up space meant being loud enough that nobody could overlook me. Now I think taking up space can also look like being honest about what I want. Saying when I don't like something. Letting somebody love me without automatically trying to control every part of how they do it.
Allowing help.
Resting.
Changing my mind.
Booking the trip.
Writing the book.
Building the business bigger than the version I originally imagined.
Loving my people and still leaving enough room for me.
That's the Wanderlust Romance Lifestyle I'm exploring. Not perfection. Not running away from real life. Actually being present for more of it.
So when I say: Read the Story. Find Your People. Live the Experience. I'm not standing on the other side telling you I figured it all out. I'm over here doing it too.
Let's go.
