Sunshine Blogger Award

Hi everyone – I have exciting news! I was recently nominated for the Sunshine Bloggers Award by Kate with A Sprinkle of Everything who was gracious enough to give Suitcase Six a glance. You should check out her amazing lifestyle blog for lots of great posts about travel, inspirational topics, blogging, and more (many of them are for you travelers out there!)

As Kate explained perfectly on her blog:

The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to bloggers who are creative, positive and inspiring. Once nominated the blogger is required to write a post in which they:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated them and link back to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated them.
3. Nominate 11 other blogs and give them 11 new questions to answer.
4. Notify your nominees and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post.

The 11 questions Kate sent my way are below, with my answers! I had a great time going through these.

Kate’s Questions for Suitcase Six

1. I have only been blogging for about three months now. I officially “launched” Suitcase Six in early June, and I started working on the website and posts a month before that, but I am pretty new to the blogging game.
2. I started blogging because I have a lot of inspiration from my past trips and women in my life whom I know travel a lot. I’ve been lucky enough to take some really amazing trips with my friends and to watch them take a lot of trips on their own. I wanted to document those experiences we’ve had, push myself to do some creative work, and learn about how our travel fits into our work and how travel impacts the places were visiting. I felt like I had so much inspiration from the people around me that I wanted to share that inspiration with women who want to travel but who don’t want to completely give up their careers, or who want to find ways to give back through their travel. Suitcase Six is for women who’re interested in making their communities brighter, even if their communities are constantly shifting.
3. I think, so far, the hardest part of being a blogger for me has been balancing all of the different things I want to do with my blog while remembering I’m still only in month three, and not forgetting all my other life responsibilities. I’ve really had a lot of fun figuring out my website design, content ideas, social media tricks, and all of that, but there are countless things to learn I’m trying to remember to start slow so I don’t get discouraged by what I don’t have done.
4. I was born in Bloomington Indiana, where I went to college at Indiana University, but I grew up in Indianapolis, a big (relatively) city in the Midwest USA. It’s not the most exciting place in the United States but I have really loved growing up here and think there are some beautiful places in the state. Bloomington is my personal favorite city in the state.
5. I don’t have any pets right now. Are used to have a miniature dachshund name Mandy who was our family pet. We loved Little Miss Mandy dearly but she passed away a few years while I was in college, and as been living in apartments and traveling so much over the past few years, it just wouldn’t be fair to any animal. I volunteered at the animal shelter the past year or two to get my animal fix in since I can’t have a pet of my own.
6. In my spare time I love to travel, and when I’m not traveling, to plan travel! I’m always scheming for the next adventure. But I also love to do yoga, cook, read, go hiking, or just enjoying a good cup of coffee and conversation. I’m a very goal-oriented person so I’m always doing something, always trying to learn something new. I wear myself out every day putting way too many things on my to do list, but I can’t help it!
7. If money was no object, I would love to take a cruise to Antarctica. I’m fascinated by all the ice and snow there and I think it would be incredibly impressive to go boat by and see this region that’s so relatively untouched. I think second to that, probably any place that’s really difficult to get to – places less travelled by, so to speak. The more remote an area is, the more expensive it typically is to get there but if money was no object I could fly our sail or get wherever I was going with no problem.
8. Because I’m pretty new to the game, I am reading a ton of different blogs but only a few regularly. I’m kind of exploring as many blogs as I can in all of the different fields that my blog covers; travel, women, work, sustainability, and human rights. I’m trying to figure out which blogs are my best resources so that I can add those to my regular reading list.
9. I’m the Mentoring Director for a called HOPE (Helping Offenders Prosper through Employment) which I started with a professor in college. It pairs up students that are in the juvenile correctional facilities in Indiana with college mentors who teach them employability skills. This job evolved from paid work as a research assistant, to a little bit of volunteer and contracting, to being a full-time contractor hired by the state! My job is primarily to work with undergraduate college students to recruit, train, and monitor their mentoring but I do a lot of other things too like run the website, revise our manuals, and most recently help plan a work trip to Norway next year. I absolutely love my job.
10. I do have siblings. I have a younger sister who is a student at Indiana University, and an older half-brother who is in Indiana as well.
11. Being nominated for the sunshine blogger award is a really exciting thing for me because I am just starting off and have been doing a lot of comparing to other blogs (which I know you’re not supposed to do, but it’s really hard!). It’s so rewarding to get this from another blogger and know that they thought the work and effort I’ve been putting into my blog has been worth it. I’m really looking forward to being a part of this new blogging community. I’ve already learned from so many awesome blogging women (and men)– I can’t wait to see where I’ll be a year from now.

And without further ado, it’s my turn to nominate eleven blogs that I think are deserving of this award. My eleven are below – I recommend you give them all a visit!

My Nominees

After much research, I found 11 amazing travel blogs by women that cover topics of sustainability, ethical and culture travel experience, balancing work, and budgeting for adventure! Check out each of these awesome ladies’ blogs for great advice and inspiration (in no particular order).

1. The Travel Rebellion : This amazing blog is fighting against the destructive aspects of travel, sharing projects to get involved with and great posts about ethical travel, especially with regards to animals.
2. In Locamotion : Alissa has some amazing unique posts about sexual health while traveling, exploitative travel, menstruation products for the traveling woman, and other really valuable information!
3. Yoga Wine Travel : Check out this world-traveller blog to see Flo sharing her experiences drinking wine and doing yoga across the globe.
4. EcoKats : Kat’s tagline is “Exploring the World with Sustainable Travel” and this environmentalists’ blog shares information on doing just that!
5. Explore Love Travel : With some sustainable tourism and environmentally focused posts, this awesome blog is a blog made “by imperfect people FOR imperfect people” and has a refreshing approach to travel blogging.
6. Green Global Travel : This blog’s mission is to “share our deep love for Ecotourism adventures, inspire people to travel and live more sustainably, and encourage everyone to do they part to make the world a better place”.
7. Sustainably Chic : This blog shares great fashion finds that are sustainable – perfect for the traveller looking for some quality items to add to their backpack capsule wardrobe.
8. Oregon Girl Around the World : Erin writes about travel from the family perspective, sharing tips on “green family travel and sustainable adventures”.
9. Soul Travel Blog : Ellie blog mission is “to help spread awareness of all things Responsible and Sustainable Travel Related”, with some great content on yoga and train travel too!
10. The Ufuoma : Ufuoma’s blog focuses on travel and is “on a mission inspire people to travel and live their life fully with adventure”. She has great resources on balancing work and budgeting for travel.
11. The Other Side of Forever : Blogger Madhurima writes about travel with a focus on understanding and appreciating the culture of the places she visits.

Suitcase Six’s Questions for the Nominees

1. Why did you choose the topic for your blog?
2. How long have you been blogging?
3. When you’re not blogging, what are you doing?
4. What do you wish you could tell other women starting their careers?
5. What are you most proud of to this point?
6. If you could learn one thing, what would it be?
7. Where would you most like to travel to next?
8. What is your biggest challenge as a woman?
9. What is your biggest strength as a woman?
10. Who is one of your role models?
11. What is one of your long-term goals?

A huge thanks again to Kate from A Sprinkle of Everything for the nomination, and congratulations to all the nominees! I hope you have as much fun as I did reading through worthy blogs to nominate in your Sunshine Bloggers post!

Thanks for reading! Are you planning a trip soon?

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