Hi there! My name is Shannon, a major victim to the travel bug. I began traveling on my own my freshman year of college when studying abroad in Rome over a summer. Craving a longer stay abroad, I went to Madrid for a semester. I had the time of my life, bouncing from place to place in Europe, and even crossing over into Morocco. When college came to an end, I no longer had study abroad programs to take me overseas. So I had to get creative.

Luckily, there are several travel blogs with articles on how to make traveling possible. Wanting a completely different experience from the city life of Europe, I decided to try out Wwoofing in Bali, Indonesia. Wwoofing is a great way to pursue an out of this world experience by organic farming, in return for room and board. I loved it. But I had a problem. I couldn’t just do that forever. How could I travel while supporting myself? Like many others, I had the dream of travel writing as a career. But I couldn’t do that without traveling first, and my travel bug had me craving to leave before I could save enough money to support me, long enough to get a following. What I started to notice while desperately searching for an answer was the repeated mention of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). Teaching English abroad sounded like a good long-term plan. I never imagined myself being a teacher but I figured, why not? So I went for it, enrolling in a class for my TEFL certification in Costa Rica. I dove into my first teaching position at a private school in Colombia, followed by another position at a language center in Vietnam.

While teaching taught me several valuable skills, and helped me develop into a stronger person (not to mention, kids are so special in this world), I knew it wasn’t my passion. I realized, if I had the willpower to move around the world to live and work in unfamiliar places, I also had the power to quit my job in order seek out something I wanted to pursue professionally. So I quit my teaching job in Vietnam, and flew to India to go to yoga school and get certified as a yoga instructor. I was so incredibly happy. I loved everything I was learning, and I couldn’t wait to share it with others. Sometimes you just have to jump on that mysterious train and trust that it will take you somewhere incredible. 

Now, here I am, a business partner for a women’s adventure and empowerment travel company, Lift Life Travel. My job encompasses building itineraries (which I always did on my own!), guiding women in beautiful places, and encouraging internal growth through traveling. I feel as if all my experiences have brought me to where I am now, and I am forever grateful to now have my dream job with a travel business that lifts women up to become their best selves through the transformative experiences of travel.

So where does the hammock come in? One day, a roommate of mine told me how her and her boyfriend were able to set up camp in their hammock outside a hostel in Lombok, Indonesia in return for buying drinks at the bar. Sleeping in a hammock on an island under the stars? That sounded like the dream. Before heading to Costa Rica for my TEFL certification, I came up with this crazy idea that I would purchase a hammock and take it with me wherever I go. It would be my comfort, my mobile home, my friend. Who doesn’t love hammocks? Funny thing, I’d never set one up myself. I was a hammock amateur. Regardless, I went to REI, and found my ideal hammock with mosquito netting. I now prefer my hammock to a dorm bed, and I’ve slept comfortably in my hammock in hostels, on beaches, and even on a ferry boat on the Amazon river!

Come follow me on my adventures with my hammock.

If you like videos, check out my My Traveling Hammock YouTube Channel! 🙂