Globalroamink’s Weblog

If you’re reading this, you’ve made it to the Global Roam ink blog. Welcome! I’m so excited to have a reader!

Global Roam ink has been a long time in the making and it’s grown way beyond my modest, initial plan, which – of course – started with a trip.

Those who know me know I come with a history of travel. I love to journey abroad. Thankfully my career as a public school teacher left my summers free so I could pursue my wanderlust. I filled up my twenties with teaching and travel.

But when I turned 30, I left the classroom behind to embark on a second career: writing. Yet I couldn’t shake my nagging wanderlust. I still schemed ways to get myself onto an airplane.

My last big trip out of the country was a big one indeed: My husband and I quit our jobs to travel across the world. We dubbed this trip our Global Roam.

For me, travel has always sparked introspection. When I get far away from home, and stay away for a while, my brain starts asking questions.

Once I’m exposed to life in another land, it becomes very obvious to me that my life back home isn’t the only way to live a life. There are other options. Other ways. Suddenly, nothing seems more stifling than going home and carrying on with my life just as it had been before I left.

So it was during this last big trip, this six-month Global Roam, that I got to thinking about new directions my life could take upon going home.

I wanted to combine all the things I loved doing: traveling, writing and teaching. I came up with this plan to start an online travel magazine that would cater to teachers and students.

Through it, I wanted to inspire and encourage kids to first learn about the world, and then get out there and go experience it. That’s why you’ll find that each feature story comes with a corresponding Student Activities page.

Inside the Teachers’ Lounge are lesson plans and reading guides saved as pdfs so that teachers can quickly print and copy the activities for use in their classrooms.

In a nod to the trip that sparked the brainstorm that started it all, I christened the magazine “Global Roam.” The “ink” was added later for a bit of fun, and because – even though it’s all online and technically not using any ink – it’s still a magazine.

And I’d love to know what you think of the magazine! So drop me a comment and I’ll do my best to make Global Roam ink just as user-friendly as can be.

And so…

Here’s to this issue and all future issues, too!