One of my favorite hobbies is traveling. By the age of 30, I had gone to over 35 countries, nearly every continent, and had to have pages added to my passport- twice. While I am hardly a travel blogger, my frequent adventures have taught me a few things about to see the world fearlessly and loving myself more.

1. Know your limits, and push them. What I learned about traveling early on is the best adventures are hard.  They involve a little struggle. Don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable. Do something that terrifies you. Sure, you might fail. You also might succeed.  Push your boundaries, just a little bit, and you’ll open yourself to a whole new world of possibilities.

2. Focus on enjoying life more, and how your body looks less. It’s amazing how many opportunities I missed early in life because I was afraid of how people would perceive my body. Traveling has taught me that beauty is completely malleable. There is no universal standard. So I accepted that some people would always find me beautiful, some would always find me ugly and all that mattered if how I saw myself.

3. The best adventures are off the beaten path. We are taught from youth to follow the path, to do the ordinary, to behave. Travel has taught me that the most exciting adventures, stories and learning doesn’t come from the average day to day. So be weird, do things differently, get off the path. You’ll never know what your missing as a result of habit.

4. Talk to strangers. Actually talk to everyone. One of my favorite memories is how I met these amazing men in Mykonos, Greece. I literally jumped on a bar at gay club and shamed the crowd for not dancing to Madonna. I then proceeded to show them how it was done.  As a result I ended up with 3 amazing travel buddies for the rest of my trip, and no one shamed Madonna again.

5. Friends are important. Taking the leap to do something can be scary, you don’t have to do it alone. Having someone their to support you through the scary and shitty times, matters. This was a hard, but very important lesson for me,  an ” I can do anything on my own” girl, to learn.

6. It ok to be basic. Somethings are just fun. Don’t shy away from something because everyone else has done it. For example, I went on a Guinness tour in Dublin, Ireland like every other tourist. Did the fact that tons of people had done it before make it any less fun. Nope. It was still great and ended the way I like most things to end- with free beer.

7. Support your local community. Sight seeing is fun, but my best memories are when I have wandered into a local neighborhood and explored how the people actually lived. For example, playing fetch with this dog in a London park. What makes people who they are isn’t their museums or their monuments, but rather culture and perspective in life. As a global citizen it’s important we take an active role in the community that surrounds us and change it for the better.  If we don’t get involved, we cannot be angry when perceptions refuse to evolve.

8. Be yourself. Its amazing how many new people you meet and adventures you have when you don’t try to change who you are. I will always be loud and sassy and,  dare I say it, a bit weird. I wore this Mexican wrestling mask all around Miami, creating some awesome experiences while being my weird goofy self.  People think you need to be someone else to impress the world, nope. The people we admire most, usually got their by being true to who they are and refusing to let anyone steal their shine.

9. Approach everything with a smile. The more you greet new experiences with a positive attitude, the more fun those experiences are going to be. Even if they don’t work out as planned.   Pushing yourself to try new things with a positive attitude pays off.  Nobody likes a Debbie Downer, nobody. Plus smiles have a magical power to melt perceptions. I have personally experienced several times in my life where I have been able to change someone’s view of plus size people by being a positive force in their lives.

10. It’s ok to be a tourist. Sometimes in life you just want to try something new and not feel like you have to commit to it for life. Just as you are a tourist on vacation, you can be a tourist in life. You don’t have to commit to a change before you are ready and know its a fit for your life. It’s 100% ok to try something out for awhile, knowing full well you might abandon it later.