This may have caught many of you by surprise, the sudden disappearance of my blog, and I admit that’s completely my bad. The swift change of everything was both spontaneous and long-time planned, actually. See, when I officially changed my name to Tripseekers, I didn’t do much research behind it. I didn’t look too hard into the name of my site, who else uses it, the commonality of it all, and more. My longtime readers may recall the dual name “Chasing Hope|Tripseekers” that preceded the name change. They still live on, but it came down to what was my blog at the time and what will it be going forward.
I was a newbie in the vast world of blogging and building my identity. And I had much to learn in my first 3 years of writing. Eventually, Chasing Hope waned as I felt at heart it was good, but it wasn’t fully able to encapsulate what I was trying to share with y’all. So eventually, I decided to commit to one name instead, and Tripseekers was able to live on it’s own. And for a long time, even now, I felt it did well in describing what I wanted. The thing was, it was something that I didn’t have at the time. I truly wish I could quickly point to a post I made about what has kept me from traveling as much as I aspire to, but the thing is that throughout many posts there are breadcrumbs detailing pieces of my life, past and present, that has prevented me from going abroad. However, I’m hoping the curse finally gets broken as I detailed in my post “When Will I Actually Travel?“.
So while I was seeking a trip, as are some of you, I wasn’t fully satisfied with the name as I wasn’t living up to it and didn’t know when I would. It was made more apparent when I finally joined Instagram and started diving through travelgrammers (is that a thing?). I knew back then that I was not the only Tripseekers out there, as there were two main ones also using that name. Rather than compete for it, I always was one for choosing the road less traveled and so that feeling kept biting at me to find a new name for myself. Again, creating my own identity and brand for what this blog is. We certainly grew from several years ago, however one thing has remained constant: motivating you out there to make the most of each day.
Whether it’s relating through my life updates, hitting you in the feels with poems, inspiring thoughts with mental food, and everything else they were intended to help bring positive change in your life. And that’s what I wanted to relay in the name, while also keeping in mind my main goal of it all: travel. So, my sudden adventure to find a new name began and ended with a Google search for “other words for adventure”. Several tabs with 20+ words from other cultures and languages were sifted through and, trust me when I say that, it was not easy to narrow it down. Of course, I have a preference for as short a word as I can make it and, attempt to, keep it to one word. This eliminated plenty of them, which was fine since some did not roll off the tongue well.
Others were unique, like hygge and meraki, but I just couldn’t find a way to make it work or it was used already to go with adventure. And then I found novaturient, and it kept sticking in my mind with what it stood for. A part of me kept saying to check every other possibility, but I think I knew I wanted to work with this word. I even went back to my Instagram friends to see their names, and I thought what if I used my name in the title? However I, personally, was never a fan of something such as “Steve’s Adventures” or “Travel with Steven” as names. Just didn’t sound catchy or original to me, but I tried to think of 2-3 word phrases that could work. Ultimately, I just couldn’t think of a better word to use that best represented what I brought to the table, now and going forward, than novaturient. It was something that I felt most of my life, and I’m sure you as well at some point in time.
So then it came down to how to spin the word to tie in travel. Although it defines itself as a feeling that pushes one to travel, I wanted to cement that feeling into a commitment to travel. Of course, I couldn’t alter the word too dramatically, otherwise the meaning gets lost. Luckily the “-turient” part closely matches “tourist”, and suddenly a new travel title was born! You might have to squint to see the resemblance, but trust me it’s there. And I really like it, as it’s a one-word name that’s catchy and rolls off easily. I’m just grateful the domain for it was available, because that was another thing I had to think about was the sites. My biggest fear was changing site domains and losing everything I had done for Tripseekers, but fortunately all had been moved here and fit well with the new design that I also got. My WordPress site name is still going by it’s now former name, so that anyone who types it in will be redirected to my new site. However, after several weeks, I will probably change it thus ending another chapter of my blogging life.
Now we enter a new chapter, as we enter the 2020’s, which has been such a crazy year already. I now have a true identity and brand going forward that I hope develops into something much more. And hopefully you are liking the new face and features of this site. Let me know what you think! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the name change, the new website design, and what you’re excited to see going forward. For while it’s a little sad to say goodbye to Tripseekers, I’m sure you Seekers will enjoy what’s to come as we go on new adventures as Novatourist. . .
Novatourist 