the google search that changed everything

It's been a while: the quick version of the last year of my life.

It’s the first day of fall, “the start of something new,” as Gabriella Montez and Troy Bolton would say. I haven’t written my newsletter in over a year and I have no excuse.

In June 2024, I wrote an article called “surrendering to transitions” after another period of silence with Substack. As you can guess by the title, I was talking about a transition in my life, basically the stress of figuring out how I was going to stay in Spain.

The whole year prior, while I was living and doing the NALCAP program in Málaga, I often would write about living in Barcelona with my partner in my notebook. I would vividly describe a random day with an exact date in the future from morning to evening, and each time it was a bit different. It was fun to imagine many different dream days because there are many ways things can turn out aligned.

I visited the Catalunian city for the first time in spring 2023, and fell in love with its young, diverse, and creative atmosphere — so much so that I visited again a year later around the time I wrote that article about transitions.

After the NALCAP program, I used my remaining visa months to spend time with my partner in Bilbao for the summer. While he headed to work, I would head to the Azkuna Zentroa, a community center and library right across the street. The travel magazines were my source of inspiration, reminding me of my dreams to travel the world and leave an impact, and even informing me of opinions and perspectives I have about certain kinds of tourism and projects. I had received several ads about a school of travel journalism after uploading some stories about those perspectives on Instagram. I had honestly never thought of the term travel journalism to refer to travel writing, but there does seem to be a huge difference.

Looking for ways to make my Barcelona dreams come true, I was excited at first glance — my heart rate even went up — until I found out that the school was online. An online course would not help me stay in Spain. I was looking at Spanish language schools that had good offers for staying longer than 3 months to be able to get another student visa, but they all cost thousands of dollars and since I already had a conversational level of Spanish, I wasn’t sure how worth it that would be.

I kept going to the Azkuna Zentroa to scan the travel section, hoping for a lightbulb idea to flip the switch with some life changing solutions. And it did, but I wasn’t sure about how lightbulb-y it was at the time.

The thought was — let’s do a google search.

It felt unreal at the time, but I struck gold. Literally the first link was to the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona’s in-person Master's program in travel journalism.

Uhhhh, what? This time my heart rate really went for a ride, clicking on the link with a deep anxiety that I may have found the solution I was looking for, the best solution I could’ve possibly received.

It all worked out so smoothly it was hard for me to believe there wasn’t an imaginary hand involved to help make it possible. The program would start in January 2025, and the application would open about a week from that day. I contacted the University immediately to get more information. They sent me the brochure and calendar from the previous year and I read every single word of it, tearing up at the alignment I felt with the content, and finally knowing exactly what I had to do.

Fast forward to today — September 22nd — and in two months I’ll be a master in travel journalism. This year has been one hell of a ride. The Lookout Point has (unfortunately) been replaced with LinkedIn posts summarizing my weekly lectures in hopes to get noticed as a passionate individual worth a message or job offer. And my mind has been fluttering with joy at the end of each lecture, grateful to be able to learn from experts about a profession that once felt so far from reach. Oh, and my partner and I officially moved in together.

That’ll be all for this letter. A quick update. A quick message of inspiration to keep trying, to keep your dreams present, to nurture them and feel them as if they’re on the next page of your life’s novel (because they probably are).

Thank you for being present with me.

With peace, love, and compassion,

Tea