Welcome to this humble nook on the web! My name is Tara and I live with chronic Travel Bug Syndrome. Luckily there’s no cure and I can safely say I will have the pleasure of treating it my whole life.
This is the story of Travel with TMc and its evolution over the past decade.
EARLY FAMILY TRAVELS
I caught the travel bug early in life, with family road trips across North America. At age 14, our family skipped over the pond for a European odyssey to connect with our ancestral roots.
AN IMPROMPTU AND MEMORABLE MOVE OVERSEAS
After university I had no idea what to do next. With an invite from a friend and zero research whatsoever, I moved to Ireland. As a teen I swore I’d never return there thanks to abysmal weather and crippling allergies. Life served me my first taste of “never say never” as I fell in love with the Emerald Isle and extended my stay from 4 months to 1 year. To this day, I’ve returned to Ireland more than any other country. It’s a running joke with family and friends that I’m destined to move back.
WORKING IN TORONTO & TEACHERS COLLEGE
With my visa for Ireland expired, another “never say never” experience transferred me to Toronto for work. Colleagues became adventure buddies and remain good friends to this day.
Despite planning to live in a different country every year until I was no longer eligible for the Working Holiday Visa, life had other plans. With a little cackle (so I imagine) it whispered, “time to throw a fork in the road”. Teaching French was in the back of my mind as a career for when I was ready to “settle down” and live in Canada, sometime in my 40s I presumed. It’s a respectable career and I love languages and working with kids. It was not in the plans to attend teachers college in my 20s…until the announcement that the program was changing from 1 year to 2 rocked the boat. Begrudgingly, I applied to 1 school for the final 1-year program. If I got in, I’d attend. If not, I’d happily hop back overseas. As luck would have it, I was accepted. The next year spent in teachers college was a countdown to the day I could hightail it out of the country again.
THE BLOG IS BORN ON JEJU-DO, SOUTH KOREA
Sparing you the rant, I swore for years that I’d never move to Korea as a teacher. Naturally, I took a job at an international school on Jeju-do, South Korea after graduation. Anyone else sensing a pattern? On my new island home, I created my first blog, La tour à l’étranger, to bring family and friends along for the adventure. It was a creative outlet to preserve memories, as well as my sanity, during a turbulent time. With short breaks, I visited Japan and Bali. Halfway through my contract, I quit and escaped to Canada. At home, the blog lay dormant.
SAFELY BACK IN CANADA, BLOG ON HIATUS
Finally able to share what happened and why quitting is sometimes the best decision, I briefly returned to writing. Released from the weight of that post, the blog retreated into silence. I was spent – emotionally, physically, and mentally, upon returning to Canada. My well-thought-out 5-year plan was chucked out the window. To save money and regain a sense of stability, I moved back in with my parents and took my first Ontario public school teaching job. Life was not going as I’d envisioned, but I was grateful for the comfort of home and steady income.
The job was a means to an end to set me up for the next international chapter, once my brain could settle. I was frustrated yet made the most of my time, returning to Europe to surprise a friend for their birthday and car camping with my then-partner along the west coast of the US and Canada. The energy and enthusiasm for travel returned in full force, however the blog remained untouched. In fact, returning to the keyboard didn’t cross my mind.
AROUND THE WORLD TRIP, MOVING TO NEW ZEALAND, THE BLOG RETURNS
Big exciting things happened in 2017. Travel’s momentum returned and the cogs of the blog slowly chugged back to life. My then-partner and I embarked on a round-the-world (RTW) adventure for 4 months before moving to New Zealand for another 8 months. At his suggestion and encouragement, I dusted off the blog, starting somewhat from scratch with the intent to build a business. Having zero idea what “building a business” entailed, I bought the TravelwithTMc domain to make things official. Next, I signed up for Nomadic Matt’s blogging course. It was exciting to directly apply my new found technical website knowledge of items like widgets, SEO, and HTML as I built this website on WordPress. Never before had I been interested in computers or tech, but for some reason the problem-solving and creativity required to run a blog was all-engrossing.
What I didn’t realize was how difficult it would be to simultaneously write, learn how to build a website, and travel/live abroad at the pace we were moving around. I barely wrote during that year abroad. Instead, I rebranded from La tour à l’étranger to Travel with TMc and instated 4 new website pillars: People, Places, Pictures, and Parlance. With a desire to share the stories of the people and places we were visiting, as well as photography and linguistic curiosities, the stage was set for the next chapter.
CANADA AGAIN?! THAT LITTLE THING CALLED A PANDEMIC.
After New Zealand, my partner and I returned to Canada to figure out the next steps. I wanted to continue travelling and did so for most of 2019. Lots of exploration was enjoyed. Little writing was accomplished. The blog was always on my mind, but with teaching full time and several days a week in the evenings, it couldn’t be the priority. I also started travel coaching, teaching Canadians the points and miles tips and strategies I had been using to see the world at a fraction of the cost.
The pandemic struck in 2020 and I thanked my lucky stars for teaching when the travel industry plummeted. Everything happens for a reason, they say. Oddly, it was during the summer of 2020 that I started 2 blog series: Ontario’s 160 Most Unusual Sites and eating my way through every local food truck in the span of 2 weeks. Without the delightful distractions of family events, friend gatherings, and the external world in general, I wrote. Actually, I wrote quite a bit. I also started sharing more on Instagram. This local newspaper, this newspaper, and the local radio picked up the blog series and website traffic spiked.
THE WORLD RE-OPENS, THE BLOG IS BACK IN ACTION
For the past 2 years (it’s now 2024), the world has returned with fervour to its travelling ways. In 2022 I cautiously ventured outside of Ontario and Canada for the first time in 2 years to attend TravelCon. Reuniting with industry friends at this conference seemed like the perfect way to reacquaint myself with the world.
That year I also fulfilled a 5-year dream of buying a campervan.
Since 2022, I’ve taken some pretty spontaneous trips to Mexico and Colombia, embarked on several campervan road trips throughout Canada and the US, and popped over to Europe several times. Throughout all of these personal and work travels, the mission of the blog remains the same: to serve you, my fellow travellers, by helping you discover new delights in familiar and foreign places in an affordable, sustainable, and connected manner. The world has so much for us to share and it’s my joy and privilege to be a part of your journey!
Stay tuned for new adventures, stories, and language tidbits coming your way!
