In March 2020, I discovered myself the place many people have been at the moment: caught in my home, drowning in on-line college work and bored out of my thoughts. My display time was via the roof — largely because of the hours I’d spend scrolling via TikTok every night time — and my provide of Netflix collection to binge was depleting quick. I used to be in a funk and in determined want of some new, partaking content material to distract myself with. Fortunately, a hero got here within the type of Kara and Nate, a husband and spouse filming their life and placing it on YouTube.
Kara and Nate aren’t your typical vloggers. The 2 started posting on YouTube throughout a yr spent touring after they moved out of their Nashville residence and put all their belongings in storage. Their honeymoon in Belize had opened up their eyes to what journey needed to provide, and so they have been itching for extra. In 2016, they boarded a airplane to Tokyo with each intention of returning to Nashville, however the finish of the yr didn’t convey them again house. As their channel grew, they dismissed the thought of “settling down” and set a aim to go to 100 international locations, which they accomplished firstly of 2020 after simply 4 years of touring.
Naturally, once I stumbled upon their channel, I began from the start, watching eagerly as they went from Tokyo to Singapore to Thailand and on. It was like discovering a brand new present I cherished or studying a ebook I couldn’t put down. I used to be anxious to see the place they went subsequent and what they did subsequent. As I watched extra, I discovered myself compiling an inventory of the locations I wished to go to based mostly on the place Kara and Nate had traveled: a cruise via Antarctica, an over-water bungalow within the Maldives and a biking trip down the Tuscany Path. By watching their movies, I had been contaminated with the very factor that drove Kara and Nate to begin their channel within the first place: the journey bug.
Previous to touring, neither Kara nor Nate had any filming or enhancing expertise. Nate ran a printing firm and Kara was a preschool trainer. Whereas this lack of expertise might have been apparent in a few of their earlier movies, you wouldn’t comprehend it now. Every video is beautifully shot and manages to completely seize the essence of every place they go to. This pristine high quality has definitely performed a task in my love of their channel; I actually really feel like I’m there with them. Nonetheless, what units these two other than the many different journey channels on YouTube isn’t their filming high quality however the enjoyable, infectious vitality that fills each one among their movies.
Kara and Nate make it a behavior to hunt out unique accommodations and experiences of their travels, however they’ll additionally make the blandest day appear to be the world’s biggest journey. By some means, watching their movies has made me romanticize sitting in airport lounges, dashing to the gate minutes earlier than the airplane boards and all the opposite not-so-glamorous quirks of touring. They’ve the epitome of a optimistic perspective, and once I sit down to look at their latest video, I can really feel their optimism emanating from the display.
Since discovering their channel in 2020, I’ve avidly adopted every of their latest adventures. The pandemic posed some sudden challenges to journey channels, however Kara and Nate took this in stride by shopping for a van in the summertime of 2020, setting off to discover hidden corners of the US, within the hopes of visiting all 50 states (nonetheless ready for them to go to Michigan, although). They’ve since returned to the realm of worldwide journey, touching new corners of the world that I wouldn’t have even thought to go to. Their latest North Pole collection not solely had me including one other location to the very lengthy journey bucket listing I’ve curated however was additionally a welcome type of escapism as I returned to high school and was swamped with a great deal of boring homework.
Typically, watching a social media influencer do one thing as momentous as visiting 100 international locations could make touring appear to be nothing greater than an costly, time-consuming and out of attain pastime. Kara and Nate push in opposition to this — they purpose to make journey one thing that’s accessible to everybody, no matter how a lot cash you’ve gotten saved. When Kara and Nate started touring, they weren’t swimming in cash, nor was their channel some type of in a single day success. They saved and so they sacrificed to make their dream of touring the world a actuality. It was inspirational.
Most of us most likely aren’t trying to be YouTube influencers, however touring the world is a dream for a lot of, and Kara and Nate make it believable. They’ve even began an organization known as FareDrop, which goals to teach different vacationers on get cheap offers on flights, in addition to what sort of journey bank cards to buy to rack up probably the most airline factors and miles attainable — one cause Kara and Nate handle to journey a lot. Their mission isn’t just to make their dream of journey a hit, however to assist us do what they do; that’s what makes their channel so particular.
Fortuitously, I’m not the one one who has seen what a distinction these two are making. Kara and Nate have been lately nominated for a Streamy Award within the Life-style division, and whereas there’s no viewers voting, I will likely be crossing my fingers that they win as a result of they deserve it. They’ve helped to make my desires of seeing the world appear not thus far out of attain, and I’m eternally grateful to them for that.
As of now, I don’t have any instant plans to drop the whole lot and journey the world (irrespective of how interesting which will sound), however within the meantime, I’m going to maintain following Kara and Nate’s adventures, and hopefully — sometime — it’ll be me browsing in Mexico or mountain climbing within the Alps.
Each day Arts Author Rebecca Smith will be reached at rebash@umich.edu.
