I feel like a mom saying, “Where did the time go?” Today I’m so excited to celebrate five whole years of blogging. On December 1, 2014, on a snow day, junior-year Kristin signed up for a WordPress account, and little did she know, she’d still be kicking five years later. Back then, I’d just taken a high school trip to England, France and Italy and got hooked on this thing called travel. The rest is what we’d call history.

Since that day, I’ve published two books, and this year I created an online travel budgeting course. I also created a fancy new link in bio for my Instagram profile. The Enneagram 3 in me along with my insatiable wanderlust fuel my desire to create.

More than anything else, these five years of blogging have taught me about consistency and hard work. Coming up with a weekly post takes a lot of work, especially with many other responsibilities, but it’s my place of escape. It’s my space to be creative — without a grade attached or the need to make a living. Round Trip has been a big part of my life along with personal and professional growth, and I’m so grateful for my dear readers who have supported me along this journey. Thank you!

As a way of saying thank you, I’m hosting TWO giveaways: one on my Instagram to win forever access to my online course and another on Facebook to win one of my books. Although there’s just two winners for these social media giveaways, everyone is a winner with access to my brand new Free Travel Resource Library.

This blog has seen a lot of change over these five years, and for those of you who have been around since the beginning (hi mom), I truly thank you because I like to think I’ve improved since then.

Here’s to many more years of travel and adventure!