It’s been a while since we’ve checked in properly and we think now is a good time to give you guys a little life update.
2020 was a tough year for us all. It was a year filled with change, loss, and uncertainty. While we did our best to roll with the punches and adapt to the lack of travel, we ultimately faced some difficult decisions regarding our future and career.
Before the pandemic, we were living on this ultimate high. Jumping from country to country, working with brands and hotels around the world, and slowly building our online presence. We had left our comfortable jobs and traded them for a life on the road living out of our backpacks. It was the most freeing, creative, incredible year of our lives, and coming to terms with the fact that it all came to a screeching halt was difficult. We tried to stay optimistic, but deep down we were in a panic.
What would happen to everything we had built? How could we continue to promote travel when people’s health and safety should be a priority?
We sat back and waited. Waited to see if travel would open back up. Watched as other creators continued to travel and oftentimes receive backlash for not following health and safety guidelines. We were ultimately faced with an extremely tough moral decision. Continue travelling around the world despite the pandemic, or find ways to adapt and travel closer to home in an effort to stop the spread. For us, we decided that it was ultimately unethical to use our platform to promote travel during such a sensitive time. Thousands of people were dying daily and we just couldn’t justify continuing our travels (even if we were following rules) because we knew the example it would set for others.
For us 2020, was filled with a lot of waiting. I think for the most part we sat back and just hoped that things would change. That life would get back to normal and that we could eventually hop on a plane and continue our adventures. Sadly, this was not the case. By the time September rolled around, we realized that we could no longer just sit on our hands waiting for a miracle. We decided to get married and had a quick but beautiful COVID wedding at the courthouse in the UK. If there was one thing we had control over it was our personal lives and our future goals of living together. Seeing as though we were from different countries the pandemic only made it more difficult for us to be together. That is why we decided to just begin the long and expensive spousal visa process whilst we waited around.
Fast forward 4 months, and we were approved! I flew back to the UK with the mindset that this would be a new beginning and my new home for the foreseeable future. I said goodbye to my family and friends in California and took off.
The first few months in the UK were all about adjusting. Transitioning into this ‘new normal’ and working on how to move forward in our career and personal life.
High on our priority was finding steady, permanent jobs. It had been nearly 3 years since either of us had had a ‘proper’ job and honestly, we both craved the stability that a traditional job offered. If we had learned anything from the pandemic, it was that the lack of financial stability that came from being travel bloggers was something we had to change.
One thing the two of us pride ourselves on is that we always keep it real. We hold nothing back with our community and we are extremely honest about everything. Oftentimes, being an ‘influencer’ isn’t all that it seems. The money that comes out of it as a ‘micro influencer’ is enough to keep you travelling and can fund cheap accommodation around the world. However, most of the time you are trading your social media exposure, and photography for incredible hotel stays and accommodation, with no payments. As a result, it becomes extremely difficult to properly save for a future home, kids, retirement, etc.
If I’m being honest, I think the pandemic scared us a bit. It made us look at our life and realize that while travelling non-stop was incredible, it wasn’t necessarily worth coming home to nothing. For us, a home, family, and our future suddenly became much more important.
I am now elated to announce that both of us have been able to find secure full-time jobs in the UK. Equally, I am so proud of the fact that we were able to do so in only 2 months time! We are only now beginning to feel a bit more secure, but are optimistic about our careers and future.
The second priority for us this year was to get ourselves our own apartment. We had been living on the road, jumping from family house to family house, living back with our parents and we craved our own space. Being newly married and living back home with your parents can be difficult at times, but we knew as soon as we were employed we could begin looking for places of our own.
We have now officially signed a contract for a flat just outside of London and plan to move in August. We are having such a blast picking out furniture and thinking about the interior design of our space. We cannot wait to finally have a place of our own, a place to call home and make it perfectly ours.
Finally, things are slowly starting to feel like they are falling into place. We are both really proud of ourselves for the decisions we made, and the steps we have taken to get our lives back on track.
That said, these next few weeks will be hectic for sure. Between adjusting to new jobs and planning a move, we have a lot going on. However, next on our list is figuring out our ‘new normal’ with blogging and photography. Our blog and Instagram is something we absolutely love working on. Our passion for travel hasn’t stopped, and our love for capturing moments together is stronger than ever. Therefore, it’s our goal to sit down and plan how we see American and the Brit transitioning. Mixing in adventures and travel with more lifestyle content and working on finding a balance with our new jobs. For us, we plan to continue blogging as a hobby. Where before it was our full-time job, it is now becoming our side hustle. We can’t give it the same amount of time as before, so we thank you for sticking around and understanding that once we figure out a better routine content will hopefully go back to normal.
Until then, thank you for your support and love. You guys keep us going and motivate us to not give up on our dreams. If there was one thing we learned this year it’s that sometimes change can be uncomfortable, it’s okay to not succeed fully at something, and it doesn’t make you a failure. Our priorities and goals can change and we can grow in times of uncertainty.
Stay tuned for more content from us. We hope to get back to regular programming in the coming weeks when we are a bit more settled.
Sending you our love!
Xoxo
Hanna & George
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