Hello and welcome to the Inspired Woman Podcast show.
And this week I'm bringing you a lady who, believe it or not, I have not actually met before, but Laura traded in her 14 year career in higher education in 2021 for a life of adventure with purpose.
Now, she's not just a traveler, she's a cultural bridge builder who ventures beyond tourist spots hotspots to shine light on misunderstood destinations like Kenya, India, and Columbia.
And since taking the leap into entrepreneurship, Laura has guided over 220 solo travelers through the transformative journeys across eight countries.
As a writer, content creator, and impact focused travel curator, she designs experience, experiences that don't just cross borders, they break down barriers.
Her mission is to help others discover the world's most fascinating places through a lens of authenticity and intention, while creating positive ripples in every community she touches.
So even from that, those of you who know me, you know why this lady already inspires me because I have a little bit of a wanderlust spirit, and I've lived in three different countries.
And Laura, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
How did you feel when you were having your bio read?
Um, it's always interesting.
Yeah, it Is, isn't it?
A little, Little uncomfortable, but it's okay.
I'll get over it.
We, we really have to sort of settle in and sort of think, oh my goodness, this is about me.
And it's, it is quite an interesting experience like finding that with all of our, all of our listeners.
So yes, welcome to the show.
Uh, you're coming to us from Wisconsin in the United States, and, uh, I'm up here in Canada, and as I said, I, from the accent, you can tell that I, I grew up in the UK actually in North Wales, and I lived in Spain, and now I'm here in landlocked Alberta, in Calgary and Canada.
So I find those places inspire me.
So as soon as I read your bio, I was like, I have to get this lady on this show, because I think you're gonna be able to share a lot of inspiration for our listeners.
But first of all, let me just ask Laura, what or who inspires you?
Oh, that's such a hard, easy, but hard question.
I know so many, right?
So many like things and places and people.
But I think what it, when pertaining to travel in particular, it's really learning like different ways of living and existing in the world and different perspective.
That's what I've found the most valuable through travel, um, and meeting people along the way and hearing their stories.
That's what inspires me to keep, keep kind of digging for more.
The more I do it, the more I wanna learn more.
Love it.
And so tell me a little bit, but what, what place did you have you found the most inspiring?
What sort of, you know, can we maybe dive there a little Bit's so hard?
Um, Because I, I can say something amazing about every place I've been.
Um, I recently went to Kenya and I absolutely loved Kenya.
It has definitely a special place in my heart, but I would say Cuba, um, inspires me the most.
Um, I've been there three times.
I just spent a month there in January, so it's pretty fresh in my mind.
But every time I go back I just learn more and more things that, you know, I, I thought I knew and I, I didn't.
The way Cuban people live is incredibly inspirational.
Um, and, and their attitude towards life and how they make do with with what they have and their circumstances, um, is pretty incredible.
Um, there's no place I've traveled to that makes me feel as appreciative and grateful for what I have as Cuba.
Mm-hmm.
I think travel can make you very humble.
Hey, it's, um, I mean, one thing that I learned, especially, and I know that you've lived in other countries as well as I I adopted the phrase, it's not wrong, it's different, you know?
Mm-hmm.
And I find that just that living by that mantra was so helpful for me in adapting to how other people live and, you know, adapting to their, their lifestyle, to their culture.
And and I even hear, you know, I'm English speaking and I, English is the first language here in Canada, and I'm married to a Canadian, but I have to stop myself and say, it's not wrong.
It's different.
We always laugh 'cause I say that I speak English and he says he speaks Canadian.
But there are literally times where we sit there together and he is looking at me and saying, what are you trying to say?
And it, it just blows my mind because I think I'm speaking the same language as you, but the, the meaning and the connotation of something is so different.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, and what about the people?
Who are these people that come on these trips with you?
Are they mainly women or, I definitely have, um, a majority of women, but, um, I think the more women that people see on my trips, the more they think they're only for women.
Um mm-hmm.
They are mostly co-ed trips.
I just tend to get a lot more women.
Um, I would say there's definitely a significant amount of divorced women.
Um, child free women.
Sometimes I get married women who maybe their husband just doesn't wanna travel to the places that, that they wanna go to.
They'd rather, you know, take a fishing trip with the boys.
And so they're off to Morocco with me.
Um, but age wise, uh, I would say like 35 to 55 ish is kind of, of the standard.
But I've had people younger and older for sure.
Um, but definitely a lot of women.
Mm-hmm.
What was the first place that you, you discovered, you know, why did this s wonderous spirit, sort of what triggered it?
Um, you know, I'm not sure exactly, like if it was one thing, I grew up traveling as a kid.
You know, my parents took me to Venezuela when I was 12.
It's very much not a standard place that you take your children.
Um, I mean, people can't even really go to Venezuela now.
But, you know, I grew up going to Mexico, um, did the kind of the typical beach resort type thing, but it definitely got me very interested in Mexican culture and, um, Latin culture in general.
I, I spoke Spanish or started learning Spanish when I was 11 years old and just continued that.
So I think that's kind of like where it stemmed from.
But, um, as I got older when I was in college, I really wanted to live in Spain.
I know you said you lived in Spain as well.
Yeah.
Um, for some reason I just had that like idea in my head it was like, I wanna live in Spain.
So I studied abroad in Spain, loved it so much that after I graduated, I went back for three months and, um, taught English.
I got my Tuffle certification to teach English.
And from there, I think I kind of took a break from what I would consider like the type type of travel that I'm doing now.
Um, you know, I went to Mexico every year when I was married, I was in a 10 year relationship and we went to Mexico every single year.
So I've, I've been to Mexico probably 25 times.
I've been there a lot.
Um, and I love Mexico.
And it's not to say there's anything wrong with going there, but I got really tired of doing the resorts vacation type thing.
Mm-hmm.
I've never been an all-inclusive person, but, um, when I say resort, you know, it's just staying kind of like in a standard comfortable hotel.
You know, doing the touristy things like that just was never really my thing.
And so, um, kind of broke out of that.
When I, when I got divorced and I decided I wanted to travel differently, more intentionally, I wanted to go to places that it wasn't really on purpose that I was finding these places that seemed a little sketchy or dangerous, but those were the ones that appealed to me the most.
It was the ones that, like when I told people I wanted to go to Turkey, they were like, Ooh, like, why would you wanna do that?
Mm-hmm.
Um, those, those are the places that like pulled me in and made me wanna go.
So, um, I started in 2021, I started after the pandemic, um, and things opened up just a little bit.
I started going to like Mexico City, Turkey, Columbia.
And that just kind of, the more I did that type of travel, which I consider to be kind of a little bit of the grittier travel, um, the more I wanted to dig deeper and like experience more and the more I felt comfortable going to even more obscure places that maybe people don't think to go to.
And that's when I discovered like, these places are amazing and nobody wants to go there because all they hear is, you know, negative things on the news.
Or maybe they're just not familiar.
And I think a lot of people, they think unfamiliar means unsafe.
And what I've learned is that's not true.
So I kind of made it my mission to show people through my own experiences and stories that this is what these places are actually like.
These are beautiful places that are less crowded, more authentic people that need your tourism more than other places like Paris or Madrid.
Um, I like to pick on, you know, just like London, Paris, Madrid, because those are part of the places that are on everybody's, especially as Americans.
Like, that's just everyone's dream is like to kind of go to like the typical places in Europe.
Um, and again, nothing wrong with those places.
They're wonderful and beautiful, but I've just found more in these other places that I've gone, like Kenya or Japan or Turkey or Morocco.
Yeah, I, I, I've, I I, I love listening to what you're saying because I think I remember one, uh, one memory, Richard talking there.
I remember being on the ramus in, uh, in Barcelona and I was with my ex-husband, uh, from my husband at the time, and we decided to go off the rambles and start wandering down a little alleyway.
And we found ourselves in quite a sketchy sort of place that we weren't expecting.
And I must admit, there was that little bit of fear, even though we were both able to converse in Spanish, there was that little bit of fear that came up that it was unfamiliar and it didn't feel safe.
And I think it was just the way that people were looking at us as if to say, well, what are you doing down here?
We don't normally see any tourists down here, so I can relate to that, you know, that feeling of little bit unsafe.
And then another time, north Morocco, I remember going to and Tangis so close to Gibraltar, right?
Mm-hmm.
And Spain, and I remember there was somebody who was taking photographs of, of all of the visitors as they disembarked from their coach.
And honest to good.
Some, some of the photographs were so funny because we're all hunched up, holding everything close, sort of looking, you know, looking over our shoulders, very insecure, felt very unsafe.
Um, so I, I love that you, you actually have that, that determinator determination, that purpose, I guess, to find and seek out those places.
What advice would you give to people who are a little bit like I was as a traveler a little bit, you know, reticent to go anywhere because they may feel unsafe?
I think my, my, I always say my motto is kind of do it scared.
So just because you're scared to do something doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.
Um, I do things scared all the time.
I just went to India last year and I wasn't scared about going to India.
I wasn't scared of like Indian people or like something was gonna happen to me, but I was really unprepared for the trip.
And I think like preparation is a huge part of like, kind of calming that anxiety and fear is just knowing what to expect.
And I, I didn't have a lot of, nobody really prepared me for the trip I was going on.
So I think like preparation is a huge part.
Doing your research or, or making sure, like you kind of know what to expect.
Like what are common, common things to like, be aware of when you go to a certain place?
I also say this all the time, like be, I feel very defensive of these places that I go to because people will say like, how do you know you're gonna be safe?
And my answer is, I don't. 'cause I don't know if I'm gonna be safe today or tomorrow.
I don't know if I'm safe in my home.
I don't know if I'm safe, if I walk across the street.
I don't know if I'm safe in New York City or Chicago or Paris or London.
I can't provide anybody that type of guarantee anywhere.
And I would argue that a lot more things tend to happen in the United States than other countries, unfortunately.
And so I find that a lot of Americans are really, really scared to get out of their comfort zone and their shell, and they're afraid something's gonna happen to them when they travel internationally.
And I, I think statistics would show that we live in one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
There's more crime.
We have gun problems, we have all kinds of issues, but we're so used to it that we don't even think of it that way now.
And we're, meanwhile we're afraid to go to Morocco or Cuba, which have been really safe places for me to travel.
I've never experienced any issues.
I was just leading a group in Cuba.
Um, and a lot of people ask, a lot of people will tell me like, oh, my significant other doesn't want me to go to Cuba, or My mom doesn't trust me to go to Cuba, or my brother's worried I'm gonna, you know, get kidnapped in Cuba or whatever.
What can you tell me about safety?
And it's like, I've never experienced any issues in Cuba with safety.
Not to say like nothing could ever happen, but it's not known for being unsafe or having a lot of crime.
Meanwhile, while I had my group in Cuba, somebody had their group in, um, new Orleans and a, you know, psycho drives through a crowd of people and kills a bunch of people.
Like, you know, so it's like, when you think about that, it's not to scare people, but to make you realize like, why are we so afraid of a different place when there's really nothing to prove that, that that fear is actually valid or true.
It's just because it's unknown or less familiar, or they speak a different language, or their skin is a different color, or they have a different religion.
It's, I just think we, when we really think about like, what are you afraid of, like what is it, is it the media?
Is it what your friends and family are kind of planting in your head and giving you doubts?
I think I, I just think when you really like, dig into it and look like a lot of this is just our, our, our minds, our monkey mind telling us that we shouldn't do something and not actual reality.
Yeah.
I was talking with the guest, um, a couple of weeks ago, and, uh, one of the things, um, in the, the book Course of Miracles, I do a lot of spiritual work.
Um, and in the book, of course of Miracles, it says that the only true emotion in our lives is love.
And that anything outside of that is coming from our own imagination.
So the fear, the being scared that it's actually something that we create rather than, you know, that love.
And I must say that I, I, I think it's really good to have this conversation because in my work as a nurse, I, I, I work with a lot of immigrants.
Um, so, and there's a lot of people who are quite dismissive of immigrants and mm-hmm.
Myself, you know, it's a label.
And when I think about, I have to stop and remind myself, you know, to be patient and to think about how they must look at our country through their lens and how frightened and scared they must be, you know, it's, um, it's, it's quite interesting when you travel to be able to flip that, that little bit, we can mm-hmm.
Very, very comfortable with all of our familiar things around us.
And it's, it's interesting that when we are taken outta that comfort zone, that safe zone and taken somewhere else, and you, you feel unsure, unsteady, you feel unknown, um, all of the above.
And then, but if you reverse that, you know, walking somebody else's shoes, it really is such a valuable thing to us as, as human beings.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think everybody should have that type of experience in their life.
If, you know, it's not possible for everyone to live in another country, I get that.
But living in another country, even if it's, you know, Spain, which is not by any means the most, you know, scary place to be, but I very much recall like living in Spain and feeling there was at times I didn't feel welcome or I felt like, you know, oh, you're American.
Or like, oh, you're, I remember like feeling like my Spanish wasn't good enough.
Or, you know, Spaniards being like, oh, I can't understand you, like you're speaking Mexican, Spanish, you know, of course I'm a white person and I, I acknowledge my privilege and I do not have it that hard compared to other people.
But if you can just get a glimpse of what that feels like, I think, I think everyone should have that at some point.
And I do get it sometimes when I travel.
Um, not that I generally get like challenged when I travel or, or feel generally unwelcome, but I definitely have had moments where, you know, I'm labeled as a tourist or people make judgements about you or they don't wanna help you.
I was actually just in, um, Tokyo in I think November, and my friend and I generally like the Japanese, they're like lovely people and they were super friendly and like really accommodating, but they really did, surprisingly, didn't speak a lot of English, which one that had to make me kind of check my privilege. 'cause I was like, why am I going to Japan and expecting people to speak English?
I mean, I understand like the logic behind that.
It's, you know, the top language spoken in the world and like in a place like Japan, and they're very forward thinking.
Like, I just kind of expected it.
But it, it was a good moment for me to kind of check myself and be like, why would I come to someone else's country and expect them to speak my language?
You know, that's mm-hmm.
You know, it, it got me it, like I said, I had, sometimes I have to check myself.
Um, but two, we went to this restaurant and we walked in and nobody was in there.
My friend and I sat down, we kind of got ignored.
Um, and then like a Japanese couple came in and they sat next to us and, and then another Japanese couple came and they sat behind us and they all got served and they were, you know, they were telling them in Japanese what they wanted to order.
And like, they were looking at them and acknowledging them and obviously making them feel very welcome.
And I did not feel welcome at all.
No.
Um, I felt ignored.
I felt like they didn't wanna make eye contact with me.
I don't know why it was, but they were, it was very apparent that they were serving the Japanese people and ignoring us.
I can only assume it's because we were tourists.
Um, and it was a frustrating experience, but at the same time, it also got me thinking like, this is how people must feel all the time.
Like, this must happen to people all the time in the US mm-hmm.
Or in other countries.
Um, and so it's, I don't think it's a bad thing to have those experiences once in a while to kind of just make you like, like check your ego a little bit and, and be able to empathize with how other people must feel all the time.
Not just on vacation, but all the time.
Yeah.
It really is so hub, humbling and a beautiful experience to have.
The other thing that, just listening to you talk, um, it sounds like your, your passion for travel and your business happened after an a, a, a big turning point in your life.
You mentioned your, your marriage and when you mentioned about the, the women who tend to come on these tours with you, you know, I, I wonder how many of those have actually had some sort of an experience that is life changing, you know, that, that crossroads, it's like, oh, I need to go and find myself and discover myself.
And that was one of the biggest things for me.
One of the reasons I've, I started this podcast is because I decided that I needed after the, the end of my first marriage, we'd been married for 21 years and it's like, okay, I really need to get to know me.
And I realized at that time I had no idea who I actually was because I spent all of my time trying to please and be what other people wanted me to be.
You know?
So I would imagine travel for me has been a big eyeopener and living in a different country.
Um, and it's humbled me, but it's really helped me to get to know myself.
So you mentioned about the people who come on the trips with you, they inspire you, you know, seeing that change.
What do you think actually triggers that change?
You know, with the travel?
Yeah.
I, I do, like we said, get a lot of divorced women or people who are going through something or have been through something.
Mm-hmm.
Um, I've learned, you know, I've been doing this for over three years.
I think I've taken like, I don't know at this point, 23 groups.
I've taken a lot of people.
Um, and so I've, I've done it long enough to notice a pattern and, um, and I tend to ask people where they found me.
Um, 'cause I'm just always curious how yeah.
How they got to me.
Whether it's, you know, I saw you on Instagram riding a camel or, um, a divorce podcast.
I've had women say, I listened to an episode where you were talking about your divorce and it inspired me.
Or sometimes it's like, oh, my friend, I'm talking to my friend about how much I'm struggling and I wanna travel.
And they're like, you need to connect with this person.
And they find me.
I just had somebody recently who found me from her therapist, her the, she was talking to her therapist about how much she wanted to travel and she was afraid to go alone, but she felt like she needed to go.
And her therapist was like, here, contact this person.
She doesn't even know me.
Um, but she, she sent her my way.
And that, that woman in particular, um, I've such a soft spot for her in my heart. 'cause she was, she had gone through like a 30 year, you know, toxic, abusive marriage.
Just got out of it in her sixties, starting completely over in her sixties.
So, I mean, it's one thing to start your life over in your like mid thirties, but to start it over after like being in that long of our relationship at that age has to be absolutely terrifying.
And so she went to Cuba with me.
She did everything.
She was fearless.
She got a tattoo at the end.
My groups tend to get tattoos.
Um, and so we took them to get tattoos.
And when I asked her to show me her tattoo, I didn't actually go with them.
Um, in this particular case, my guide did, but she came back with her tattoo and she had a tattoo of a bird cage, and then she had a bird being set free.
Oh.
And I, like, I get emotional just thinking about it. 'cause like that's the kind of stuff that like, that's why I do what I do it. 'cause there is something that just like sets people free when they travel.
They realize like, the world is a lot bigger than our problems.
And there's so many other people out there struggling.
And it's not to say like, anybody's better or worse off, or my problems are less than yours or whatever.
But it gives you per, it gives you such perspective, um, and that like, we're all human and we're all struggling in different ways and it's never too late to start over or figure out who you are.
And I have never learned as much about myself as I have through travel.
Um, there's just little nuggets that you pick up along the way.
And when you don't have your friends and your family and your colleagues and everybody who kind of knows you, that's, that's to me, like kind of the beauty of group travel is you're generally traveling with people that you've never met before.
And so you get to be whoever you wanna be.
You know, you're not coming with your friends who like already know you and already kind of judge you in some kind of way.
You get to be whoever you wanna be or you get to figure out who you are, um, without having all those other people around you.
And I think like people behave differently when they're not with their friends or they're not with their significant other, not necessarily a bad way, just they're, they're freer.
Mm-hmm.
Um, I've actually found, like sometimes I think people don't like me because of my influence on people to be free.
You know, like that, that I encourage people to, to be free and to be who they are.
And sometimes I think our friends and family don't want that for, for us, unfortunately.
So, um, yeah, I think travel just absolutely brings that out in people.
I love that.
So the couple of things again, and I'm listening to you and I, I remember somebody telling me that the best therapy that you can get is a stranger on a train.
They don't, for you, you're a blank canvas and you can just talk.
You don't have to fit into any box.
You can just be yourself.
And, uh, one of the things that I hold very close is authenticity.
You know, and I, I always remember thinking that I was very authentic, but as I say, when I turned round at the age of, I think I was 43, it was like, oh, I have no idea who I am.
I didn't know what my values were.
I didn't even know what my feelings were.
I didn't know how to feel.
And that wasn't because I was in an abusive relationship with my husband.
It was just that that's how I showed up in that relationship and my story mm-hmm.
Is that I had, um, an narcissistic mother.
And so I now coach women who have, are looking to understand their relationships with their mothers.
And it really is, it's taking you from that blank canvas and building you back up.
And the mantra for my business to stop existing start living.
And it was actually a palliative care patient that gave me that before I even thought about being in business.
But she said that having that diagnosis was the open door for her to stop existing.
She realized that she had just been existing in her life not knowing what her expiry date was, but then when she realized that there was potentially that that date, you know, that period of time she needed to live it.
And she actually said that that was such a privilege that she was living her life and that that diagnosis had given her that it's just so powerful.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
It's, go ahead.
It's, I, I've just found from my own experience and what I've witnessed with other people is it's astounding to me, um, how many people are just willing to stay unhappy because that's what's comfortable and that's what we're used to versus having to like work through that diff discomfort of, of change and kind of shaking things up.
And a lot of people just stay stuck because it's easier than the work it takes to get out of whatever you're doing.
And kind of the unknown of what's on the other side of that, um, I think, I think like a good percentage of people stay stuck and they stay unhappy and they just exist.
Hmm.
And they don't actually live.
And you know, when, when I do podcasts, a lot of times people, I'll tell them like, I'm not here to talk about my divorce.
Like, that is just the catalyst to the other side of the other half of my life, you know?
And it's, I'm here to talk about what happened after that.
Um, but if I, I was one of those people I remember many, many years just sitting there being like, well, I guess this is it.
Like this is just how it's gonna be and I can tolerate it and it's fine and it's good enough.
You know, I had myself convinced of that for a very long time.
And then finally, I don't know what it was, but at one point I was just like, you know what?
This is not good enough.
Like, nope, I'm not doing this anymore.
And, um, I, I just, I made a very, not, I shouldn't say a quick decision, but I mean, I, I, I really kind of like snapped one day and was like, Nope.
Like we're getting out of this.
We're figuring it out.
And I don't, 'cause I remember sitting there thinking like, well, what am I gonna do about my house?
And where am I gonna live?
And we have dogs and we own things together and we have vacations planned.
And, you know, those are all the excuses that we, we make to not have to make any type of change. 'cause it feels hard and overwhelming.
But I I can say with confidence that, um, getting on the other side of that, like, yeah, you have to do difficult things and it's hard.
But, um, I just cannot imagine my life now.
Like when I look back, I cannot imagine like if I had stayed in that situation and how unhappy I would've been.
Uh, so really travel is that catalyst.
Right?
I think you used that word.
It was a catalyst.
And I did, I I think it's amazing the work that you're doing.
Where can people find you?
Um, you can find me on my website is laura erickson.com.
Um, it's E-R-I-C-S-O-N and Instagram.
My name is Lola Whiskey or Laura Erickson Group trips.
Um, Facebook, I think it's the Laura Erickson.
So you can find me.
If you just Google me, you should be able to find me.
Okay.
I'll definitely share all of your contact details.
And have you got some trips that are coming up?
Just wet the appetite for some of our listeners.
Yeah.
Um, I leave in two weeks for India.
Uh, we're celebrating wholly in India with the locals.
Um, I'll be running that one for next year.
Um, then what else do we got going on?
Uh, sailing in Greece on a private yacht in June.
Um, in the fall I have quite a few trips.
We'll be going to Morocco, um, and glamping in the Sahara, um, Mexico City for day of the Dead.
We're gonna do wine harvest in Georgia.
That's Georgia, the country, not the state in the US You have to clarify that. 'cause some people are like, you're going to Georgia.
Like, like you don't Yeah.
They're like, you don't seem like the Atlanta type.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.
And then they're like, Georgia's a country.
Yeah.
Um, and then, um, Cuba for New Year's, I am, I'm running a couple of Cuba trips again, and then my newest trip, which I'll be launching in the next week is Kenya.
So we'll be doing an African safari in Kenya in March of next year.
Oh my word.
That sounds fantastic.
It really does.
It's funny you're talking about Georgia.
I have a family living down in Georgia and I was there last year and I just loved it.
I loved it.
Yeah.
It's so beautiful.
But obviously, you know, for me it was a big adventure.
Right.
Um, yeah.
You know, but, uh, and Canada as well, but I always laugh about Paris.
Everybody here never says they're going to Paris.
It's always Paris, France.
Yeah.
Georgia the country.
So yeah.
What, what did you say you were going to be doing in India?
I heard about the d de los Muertos in Mexico.
The day of The Mexico, um, holy, so holy is like, if you've ever seen people in India with like the, the colors all over them.
Mm-hmm.
The covered in like powder and paint, um, holy is like the celebration of spring, essentially like new beginnings.
And so we're going to, um, two different holy celebrations where we, we throw colors and they call it playing holy.
Um, it's just like a fun day of getting, getting down and dirty with the locals and, and celebrating.
Love it, love, love, love.
Yeah.
That, and I, that's the other thing, you know, just to, to, to wind us up here is how other people's cultures, we can learn so much from them, so much from other count, other cultures, but we tend to think that, you know, ours is the better, right?
Mm-hmm.
Like being able to strip that away and actually adopt other pieces of other cultures.
Our indigenous people here in Canada, the more I learn about, um, their culture, you know, that white man worked really hard to destroy and, uh, to an effect it has.
But now the elders, you know, I, I speak to them and it's like, this makes so much sense in my life, you know?
Mm-hmm.
There's so much that we can learn from other cultures, so, And we should, I think it's our, our duty to do that.
I, yes.
A duty.
Absolutely.
So I know now how you inspire others.
I know how travel has inspired me.
Any parting messages for any listeners here?
Any little pearl of wisdom?
Mm Gosh.
Um, if you're thinking about taking a trip, just do it.
I've, I've never heard somebody say, I, I regret booking that flight or taking that vacation unless maybe they, you know, went on an all inclusive beach vacation or something.
But nobody, nobody ever is like, oh, I just wish I hadn't traveled.
You never hear anybody saying that.
But you, you do hear people saying, I wish I had traveled more when I was younger.
I wish I had traveled more when I was, my body was, was capable of it.
Um, you do hear people saying, I wish somebody just told me the other day.
And she, it was just a good reminder.
Like, you can't take money with you when you die.
You can't take it with you.
So, you know, like enjoy your life while you have it, while your, while your body can take you places.
Mm-hmm.
Stop existing people, get living and travel.
Yeah, absolutely.
And travel.
And travel and travel.
Laura, thank you so much.
Um, absolutely delightful speaking with you.
And thank you for your dose of inspiration today.
Yeah.
So lovely to talk to you too.
