The "Big Story Living" Baby

making world travel affordable while inspiring wonder and faith as partners in the journey...all in one beautifully curated space

Happy 2 Weeks to the Big Story Living Baby!

Like the constant changes of the world we are living in, what started out as a beautifully curated space for dreaming, planning and journeying into the world cheaply and with intention, affectionately called Big Story Living, has already morphed beyond her original constructs. Now, with one eye on the future and all that this space can hold to grow us in our world travel experiences, wonder and faithful inspiration, it only seems appropriate to keep our other eye on the pressing moments in front of us and how they inform us today of our travels tomorrow.

With pandemics, wars and who-knows-what-else on the horizon, ideas of travel can easily seem out of reach, maybe even frivolous, or just so far down on the list that you can never seem to get there. Clearly, sometimes these roadblocks are real. Yet, for lovers of the world and dreamers of all she has to offer, the desires to see, touch and experience the world beyond our little corner can’t so easily be extinguished. In these moments, I really believe we don’t have to give up our wanderlust. Sometimes we just have to get creative.

That’s where Big Story Living steps in as a curated space for planning towards the future while also sharing ways to journey now into the big, wide world that might be beyond our physical reach today, but is still in our hearts and hopes for tomorrow.

Why “Big Story Living?”

Big Story Living was birthed in my head and heart years ago as a belief that engagement with the world leads to an expansion of ourselves, our vision, our intelligence, our empathy, joy, faith and just overall personal story. So, a few years ago I bought the Big Story Living URL and set off in one direction. Unfortunately, life and the state of the world had other plans. Still, the idea of BSL has never been far from my thoughts. For the last year I have curated a really successful and fun book club experience on Facebook called Big Story Living Book Club. About 60 of us explored the world during lockdown and all the various Covid restrictions through reading world-focused books together and “traveling ” to places far and wide with daily interactive emails which carried our imaginations all over the globe. I can’t wait to bring that experience back here on this new platform. Currently, I’m searching for the right name to call it because it’s so much more than just a traditional book club. Watch this space. Whatever we call it, it’s coming in March!

Looking Forward

I dream that Big Story Living will evolve into your hub for everything “travel” in one beautifully curated space. You’ll never need to start anywhere else to scratch your travel itch except right here. :) And from here, the opportunities are endless.

Beyond the book experience, a biweekly newsletter and @bigstoryliving on Instagram, we will eventually begin another layer of Big Story Living that will involve a small monthly fee…but it’s not time for that yet! Always with a double lane focus, this space will regularly give you the tools to travel on your own for almost free whether at home or abroad AND provide opportunities, guides and inspiration towards making each adventure more valuable by inspiring you to intentionally invite faith and wonder along for the journey. I come from a place of Christian faith and so I just naturally move in the world with Jesus as my personal guide. In my opinion, he really is the best travel guide of all. BUT if faith is not something that you are comfortable including in your journeys, every space I offer will absolutely still be for you. Everything will be created for you to take what you need for the day and leave what doesn’t serve you.

Here’s a list of experiences that I dream to curate for our community in the coming months and years…

• deep dives into the ins and outs of frequent flyer travel with potential training sessions where you can ask all of your questions and I will find the answers

• other cheap and free travel tips and tricks that will cut hundreds of dollars off your adventures

• opportunities for Amy to be your personal guide towards attaining your specific travel goals

• travel journals that inspire wonder, faith and intentional travel

• 30 minute holidays to help you “travel” where you are

• guides for traveling the world in your hometown for date nights or with your kids

• behind the scenes of how I travel lightly, cheaply and on purpose

• opportunities to engage more with this travel community

• curated journeys across the world with Amy where we intentionally invite wonder and faith to join us. I will teach you everything you need to know “on-the-go” about traveling cheap while still traveling well and navigating the world bravely so you can do it again and again on your own.

• video walk shows of my adventures so you can journey along with me from the comfort of home

• interviews

• opportunities to do good work in the world together

• and so much more…

Big Story Living is simply my gift to you. There is nothing I would rather do than curate this space in hopes that more people will be able to experience their travel dreams in affordable and deep ways.

How can you help?

I would be honored if you would share Big Story Living with your travel loving friends so we can grow this community together into something really fun. This is my heart’s work, but it’s a LOT of work and I would love to see our community grow so the dreams have opportunity to evolve. You inviting friends to our Instagram (@bigstoryliving) and biweekly newsletter would be a beautiful gift. Thank you for being a part of the story! I can hardly wait for the chapters to unfold alongside each of you.

Happy Travels,

Amy

What I’m Consuming This Week

News - Christiane Amanpour

Art - Alex Hillkurtz

Instagram - vienna_austria (because it’s beautiful), Maksim Chmerkovskiy (in Ukraine)

Netflix - Emily in Paris

Book - At Home in the World

Twitter - World Central Kitchen @WCKitchen and José Andrés @chefjoseandres (as he is feeding Ukranian refugees just like he fed those in Puerto Rico after the hurricane)