Today marks a very special day for me. 3 years ago I made a big leap and registered a limited company. I became master of my own fate and I pursue work that in many was perceived to be wrong or low standard for someone of my academic background.
I invested 7 years of my life in completing a PhD in history. Those were hard years. I was lead on with a promise - like many young scholars - that my devotion to academia would land me the job I wanted.
I was always that weird girl, with her Vikings, and the comics and TV series, and wanting to talk to people just like me - ordinary citizens - about why the past matters, why the Vikings should be the Norse, and why TV was doing a better job at engaging with people than Us the academics.
I was treated poorly. Undervalued. Underrated. Not just for having "crazy" ideas, for being foreign, for being a woman, for being working class and not having a silver spoon stuck up somewhere.
2 months before forming Travelusion Tours I was also the victim of employment fraud in the UK midst a global pandemic. I had just turned 30 years old. I was away from home, hadn't seen my family in nearly 2 years. My dreams and hopes had been stomped over. I cried. I was So Mad. So Angry. I had just finished my PhD seemingly no avail.
I could have packed. I could have buried myself under a rock. I could have resigned myself and get a soul crushing job in this capitalist machine driving the world to extinction. I Could Have Given Up...The inspirational Sir Terry Pratchet once came to express that anger got sh!t done though. And so my frustration with the world and desire to have an impact and help as many as I could shone through me.
I don't live a life of luxury. I work silly hours. I get rained on, snowed on, scorched on, days where my effort seems pointless and days - many of which btw - when I simply just know: I'm where I'm meant to be. I am doing what I spent so much time (and money) learning about. I'm doing what people like me should do - share with everyone willing to listen instead of sitting on my plump arse while hoarding knowledge and belittling others for not having it.
Travelusion is not just for me: It's For Everyone.
Ps - these were the firsr 2 pictures taken of me officially as the owner of the business. As you see, preparing for virtual tours.
