It’s been 3+ years since I pressed publish on my first post on The Pin the Map Project. Back then, I was working at a 9-5 advertising agency and was on the hunt for that allusive “dream job.” I had graduated college like most people do: empty-handed, saddled with student loan debt and armed with nothing more than grand ideas for my life. Refusing to hop into an office job straight out of college, I hopped on a plane instead to spend some time living abroad in Europe. The next few months of my life became my own la vie en rose as I roamed the streets of Paris, ate tapas in Barcelona, road tripped past castles and chateaux in the French countryside and visited historical sites on the Normandy coast.
When I moved to New York after Europe it was with less than $100 to my name, no job and nothing but a suitcase full of European memories and a journalism degree. I moved in with my best friend at the time and together we struggled to make a name for ourselves in the Concrete Jungle and call a corner of the city our own. They say the only predictable thing about life is how unpredictable it can be and while serving tables one evening, I met a girl who connected me to a job in advertising. I hadn’t planned on going into advertising, had naively been holding onto the hope my “dream job” would come knocking but after serving one cocktail too many to yuppie happy hour goers in Midtown Manhattan, I swapped tables for desks and started my first job.
Advertising is a wonderful, fast-paced world and-like a magic carpet ride—it swept me up into a world of glamour and glitz, a world where an entry-level worker making $35K a year would be treated to fancy dinners at restaurants with ghastly prices, would be sent over expensive champagne and invited to coveted parties attended by celebrities. We worked hard and played harder but, as it goes, glitter fades and so my awe with advertising lifted revealing one irrevocable truth: I needed something more. After a while, I didn’t care for the parties, the free gifts, the free dinners or swag that came with a career in advertising; I wanted a job that piqued my interest and ignited my passion, I wanted a job that I loved not just tolerated.
I moved around..a lot. Advertising to public relations, public relations back to advertising, advertising to marketing, marketing back to advertising-every opportunity seemed to promise a job I could learn to love but like clockwork, after a few months I’d start to rub against my job like one rubs against an uncomfortable wool sweater, just itching to take it off. It was at this point I decided if I can’t find my perfect job then I would create it. I had been writing on the side since graduating-in the form of personal blogs, occasional contributing work and journals-but had yet to find a cohesive idea and so my writing sort of floated around aimlessly without a focus. It wasn’t until I booked an impromptu trip to Colombia in hopes of gaining some much needed perspective did I find my calling: travel writing. I loved writing about destinations, about the inspiration I gained while abroad and the cultures I discovered along the way. When I received a gift from my mother of a push pin map, I eagerly pinned all the places I had been and became acutely aware of all the place I had yet to go and so began The Pin the Map Project.
The rest, as they say, is history. Since then, I have steadily grown this site to the online destination it is today-and I’ve done it alone. I’ve been sent on assignment around the world-from Jamaica to Morocco-have had my work published in VICE, FOOD & WINE, Roads & Kingdoms and more, have spoken at the New York Travel Festival, have worked with amazing bloggers and brands including Skyscanner, Topdeck Travel, Expedia and more. Now, I am opening up The Pin the Map Project to bring on some talented people to come on board—either as a contributing travel writer or PR assistant—and help take this website to the next level. A passion for travel is key, an appetite for wanderlust is needed and all dreamers are welcome to apply!
Your Adventure Starts Here.
