How a Summer of Traveling Abroad Inspired a Business

You must have rolled your eyes at that title. I know I would have. If you have kept up with my blog so far, you would have learned that I am a Youtube-addicted millennial that once hosted his own podcast and now blogs about what it’s like to have one of the most vague occupations in the world—copywriting (even more vague than Chandler Bing’s).

Well, permit me one more eyeroll before you close out this page and never come back. It’ll be worth your while. Yes, it’s another travel blog, but quite frankly, it’s a damn good story. Probably better than most. It’s so good, in fact, that I relive it every day in my head like a movie.

So, I spent last summer traveling abroad, and it inspired me to start this business.

Que eyeroll

But my travel story is different than most. I didn’t go on vacation just to party and sit on the beach all day. While there was plenty of that (every day as it turns out) I spent seven weeks rediscovering my ancestral roots and immersing myself in a culture entirely different than the one I grew up in at home in the United States.

See, my family hails from a small, secluded Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea (that shall remain nameless in this blog). My παππου (grandpa) was born there, as were my γιαγια’s (grandma’s) parents. Ιspent my entire life hearing stories about the island from my mom, and she spoke of it with such fondness that I could barely imagine a place like actually existed.

We finally visited for the first time in 2017, and at first, I’ll be honest, I was hit with major culture shock. My fast-paced American brain was used to the high-octane bustle of Silicon Valley that went full throttle around the clock. When I arrived, all of that was turned upside-down, and I was greeted with serene ocean views, lazy, long days in sleepy villages, and a culture that seemed to disregard time as a pesky interference to an otherwise joyful life.

After a few more visits, the island grew on me, and I started to fall in love. I was looking forward to spending as many summers there as I possibly could.

And then, the world ended. The plague. Lockdowns. Travel bans. And seemingly no end in sight to the misery and chaos that prevented everyone from going about their lives. I yearned to be back on the white sand beaches and spending time with my family again.

It’s funny in life how if you try hard enough, have enough faith, and put enough energy out into the cosmos, things always work out in your favor. I came to learn that very well last spring, when after a great trip across the Pond to the UK and Ireland, I felt a travel itch brewing in me that I couldn’t scratch.

Greece opened up its borders to tourists again, and from the conversations I overhead of my mom talking to our relatives abroad, people were trickling back to the island for the first time in two years, and it was bound to be a summer to remember.

I was aching for a way to go, thinking about different ways to convince my work to let me be gone for an entire season. It wasn’t going to fly, even with unlimited PTO. I was scrambling, panicking, to solidify a plan. 

In just the nick of time, the unthinkable fell out of the sky. My work announced they were offering a program to let people take an entire quarter off with a guarantee of a job upon their return. 

It was literally perfect.

Like. Literally.

Before I knew it, my tickets were booked, my bag was packed, and I was on a flight 6800 miles away to paradisical bliss. As the little prop plane that hopped in-between islands started its descent onto the arid, barely-paved airstrip that passed for an airport on the northern end, I immediately felt a weight lift off my shoulders, and knew that I was in for the summer that I wouldn’t forget.

And I was right.

I spent seven blissful weeks on the island spending time with my uncles (a very broad term in Greek families), meeting my distant cousins (that I bear an uncanny resemblance to), and making friends and memories that would last a lifetime. I was equally blessed, because my parents and I just finished renovating my grandfather’s house, all but guaranteeing an unlimited stay at any whim.

That is why I was so devastated when I came home. I knew that I wanted that place—that magical place—to be a significant part of my life. I couldn’t stomach the thought of opening up my Instagram feed and seeing my friends and cousins living it up while I was back home.

I had dreams of spending time there, spending weeks and weeks working on my novels and writing and living a simple, peaceful life away from all the noise in the world.

I needed an out, a way to support myself while I did it.

And then, like something that fell out of the sky, the idea came. 

Copywriting.

Doing what I love, in order to do what I love. What else is there in life, I mean really?

And thus, LoveLanguage was born.

And the future I want is on its way to becoming a reality.

All because of a little island and one incredible summer.

Here’s to the memories we hold, and those we’ve yet to make.

Onward!