What does it mean to be a travel influencer? I get asked that a lot. And you know what? I’m not sure what it means to other travel influencers, but this is what it means to me. My whole life was centered around travel. I was born in a small city outside Los Angeles but very quickly at 2 years old I started traveling between LA and Vigan (a small rural town in the Philippines) every year until I was 7. I started grade school at a small mountain town called Baguio and I went to an international school (which meant opportunities to meet a diverse range of people in an otherwise not so diverse country, especially in a small city called Baguio). I moved back to LA and still I was always on the road. We had a home in Las Vegas and my grandfather would always bring me along for the ride. I had no real definition of home, but I knew that traveling always made me feel like I was at home. I never went to school — and I was notorious for missing school because I was out of town or I just simply chose to hang out with my mom instead and read travel blogs while at cafes. I knew I wanted to travel and I knew I wanted to be something like Anthony Bourdain. The term “influencer” sucks and although it is technically what I am, it’s all that I’m not. To me, my job is centered around changing the way you would look at a place. To make you say, ‘wow, never saw it that way before.’ My job is to change the way you view travel. My job is to photograph and edit photos/videos that make you feel like you’re someplace else. My job is to talk about beautiful places that are more than pretty places to stay, but take you out of your comfort zone. My job is to inspire you to get out of your comfort zone and book a one way trip to Europe or South America or wherever your heart desires. My job is more than just being online and sharing the top 5 different places to eat at in San Francisco, it’s more profound than simple video edits of me eating/doing my skincare, it’s like a diary into my heart and my world. The term “influencer” dilutes the depth that I’m trying to create with my content, with my platform, with my life. Did that answer your question?