Adventures in UpJauntland
Tom Petty is at least partly responsible for my move to New Orleans last year. In 2012 I visited New Orleans for Jazz Fest and Petty was the big headliner. Shortly after the lineup was announced, I purchased tickets to the festival, booked flights and a room at Creole Gardens in the Garden District (and watched the Alice in Wonderland-themed video for “Don’t Come Around Here No More” on YouTube way too many times). While I’d spent quite a bit of time in New Orleans growing up, something about this particular visit was different. I distinctly remember having the thought as I was biking through the Marigny one evening…I need to live here someday. But it didn’t really make sense for me, at the time, to pack up my life in Seattle and move all the way across the country. But, a few years later, many of my friends were packing up and moving to Los Angeles, NYC, back home to Arizona, and I asked myself what was keeping me in Seattle.
I started daydreaming at work (as a film archivist cutting 35mm negative for Warner Bros.) about living and writing in New Orleans. I imagined having a small apartment somewhere in the French Quarter with a window overlooking travelers, street musicians, and second lines weaving their way through the streets celebrating life and lives lived. I don’t have an apartment in the Quarter, but I’m now writing and living in one of the most special cities in the world.
In May of this year I started working for UpJaunt. My friend of twenty years was piloting a travel app in New Orleans and thought I might be able to help with research and content. While I wasn’t quite sure, at first, how I might contribute to the development of the app, I’ve realized that most of us have had travel moments that have changed our lives, and broadened our perceptions of the world, and we love sharing those stories with people. This is the power and magic of travel. We’re a small team at UpJaunt — with big ideas — working to cultivate travel experiences that take people wherever it is they want to go.
Seven years ago, if someone had told me that future me would be living, writing, and working for a travel app in New Orleans, I would not have been able to connect the dots or piece the puzzle together. Then, I probably would have packed and said, “Let’s go!” The truth is we don’t know what’s going to happen when we decide to make that scary move or plan for that solo trip we’ve been meaning to take. But like Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (or in Tom Petty’s trippy Mad Hatter video), we grow or shrink in relation to the risks and adventures we decide to take…or not take. What I’ve found is that traveling and living in different parts of the country have opened me to all kinds of experiences and opportunities I never would have imagined. I’m so glad I get to use those experiences to inform my work. Whether it’s writing a blog post or creating a jaunt for the app or strategizing an email marketing campaign, I know I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing without having taken some risks here and there. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2020!
