About | From One Girl to One World

I got a few questions to ask you first…

Are you an everyday person looking to find places for a short escape?
Learn about the rich history and cultures in these places?
Gain some perspective in life and in this one world?

If those all seem to suit you, then you’re in the right place for all that. Thanks for visiting my blog, From One Girl to One World.

This is my little place on the web where it allows me to express my nerdiness (just kidding, but I mean I actually do nerd out writing about all these interesting historical facts to a lot of my posts). You’ll also get to follow me on my journeys and I get to share all those with you.

Because if you’re anything like me, you’re probably looking for an escape from all your hard work or just need a breather.. by looking to find adventures and places actually worth seeing. You’re looking to live the life you wanted, a meaningful one in all… without quitting your job.

You don’t know where to start or what to do. You don’t know how to feel more inspired than you already do. You don’t know whose perspective to hear out.

That’s where I come in with all this. I dig deep into places and experiences to let you know.

So, who am I? And what's my story?

I’m Gabrielle Sales, but most call me Gabby. I am 20-something years old and I am a Jersey girl that now lives in beautiful Arizona!

I live by my blog’s tagline “Desire. Explore. Inspire.” and hope that it will resonate with you to do that too.

I quoted in an interview once (on VoyagePhoenix.com), “I love sharing my side of things, my point of view or experience, and importantly, my knowledge.” Essentially, that’s what you’ll get out of me through my site.

Behind my story

Since I was 4 years old, I realized I love going from place to place. It all started from living in a different country when I was very young to family vacations to bonding with my amazing friends. But, it wasn’t always all that fun as I often forgot about these adventures that rooted from a young age. I pushed those fond memories because I was often stressed of my own life then.

As I grew older, I realized life was getting tougher by the year. I realized I wasn’t living my life the way I wanted it to become and it created this foundation of unhappiness for as long as I can remember: I was closed off by my own fears, often drowned myself in work from school to juggling several job positions during college thinking “Is the only thing that I will look forward to? A structured, traditional life? Will I just work and die?”, and finding myself having toxic relationships with people that often lowered my self-worth.

I did not know how I was going to change my mind as I thought I was just living day by day, often questioning my true purpose, and often conflicted with decision-making dilemmas.

Sometimes in life though, you need a break. Once a college student, I usually took some sort of trip during my holiday breaks in between college and commonly now on the weekends. I use my breaks by at least doing something fun and positive. One of them is traveling, whether that’s outside the state or locally, I love discovering places that really feed onto your soul. It’s almost rewarding as it enlightens your perspective in this world we live in and enlightens the connection you feel from yourself to the extraordinary places that this beautiful earth has to offer us.

And that’s where things changed for me. When I finally got out there, I became more confident and even though my self-love journey has been a long and tough one, I came a long way especially when I was in elementary, middle, and high school. Those were not the best years. My college years were not the best years either. The best years were when I started finding purpose from these small (and sometimes big) adventures.

I felt like I can 100% be myself when I was traveling or just moving on foot, opening my mind up to exotic and wonderful experiences, and just focusing on learning about those experiences, other cultures, and digging up the rich history of all these places rather than focusing on myself where I would instead question my direction. I learned there is never a true direction in life that you can take, there are infinite. Every one of these experiences we set out for in life is a life worth living for and it will help you get closer to accepting what happiness is, rather than feel suffocated by life’s misfortunate events.

Although, I have to note that I am fairly a normal girl with a huge hunger for adventure. And my happiness has always been from the roots of my childhood: chasing adventures and learning more about our world.

Always been curious and now I wander

When I was a lot younger, I used to look at atlas books full of maps to learn my geography and be inspired by looking at the vintage pictures of scenery in these books. I would also spin around this huge globe my family used to have and I always had a curiosity what it’s like to go to that specific place. That curiosity in me always sparked inside me until this very day and I carry on that value of being mindful for adventures.

I now want to share my dreams of adventures that were once all unimagined to my reality with others who feel stuck and who are dying to learn more about our world with the stories I want to share.

In a few other words, I am:

A hiker / outdoors lover. I like anything in the outdoors from running outside, kayaking, canoeing, hitting the beach or lake and swimming, and of course, hiking. You’ll occasionally come across my outdoors adventures.
A road trip lover. I love road trips! From national parks and monuments to interesting cities, hitting the road will lead you to awesome things.
A foodie. I love trying foods I’ve never tried or finding foods that I’ve always loved! Sometimes, I’ll mention food in my posts.
A museum and city enthusiast. I love discovering museums of all kinds — this is where you’ll learn a lot of history! Most of the time, you’ll find museums in cities and discovering all the unique things that a city has to offer is also my thing.

What all those have in common is they all involve travel of some sort and we will get more to that in a little later.

Why did I create this blog?

One day, I randomly created this when I just became a junior in college when I was bored in between my gap time for classes and I was looking for a creative outlet like most bloggers would tell you already. I’m serious.

But I remember I had all these wonderful photos and stories I wanted to share with someone… or anyone. And, there it is.

I originally made this travel blog to document the places I’ve gone to and the wonderful or out-of-the-ordinary things I’ve discovered along my journeys. Now, my blog has became something that isn’t about me anymore, it’s also about YOU, the reader.

Think of this as an informative guidebook when you need ideas or clarification on places you plan to visit. And to remind you again: I also want to help you discover that the sky’s the limit, your worth is not tied to a colorless life, and that you’ll find beauty anywhere you step outside, even if it’s all so scary to chase in the beginning and to even internalize. You do not need to quit your job to get outside your home or do a drastic transformation.

There are rich stories out there in all these places and I know you’re curious about them as much as I am. I know you want to uncover them too.

But what does that broad 'travel' word mean to me, you wonder?

While you hear the word ‘travel’, there is really no clear method of what it means to travel and that travel can mean different things to different people. It can mean flying over to a different state or country or it can mean just taking a drive to the beach near your town. I can say, however, I am not a full-time/nomad traveler nor do I truly plan to yet. I am content balancing a life being surrounded by work and my friends and family.

It is possible. You really do not need to quit that job you have to find the freedom to adventure. I actually, as I mentioned prior on this page, use as much as my time-off to get going somewhere else.

I mostly do not travel to lay around and relax and I use the purpose of traveling to mostly do sightseeing or learning about stories of our world… even if that includes me covering a post on a beach. There’s got to be something interesting about that beach! You can always relax back at home, but to see something you may never have the opportunity to see again? Get up and go!

My passion for both writing and taking pictures was combined here, and also, with my love for finding connections within and outside my home state to create this space.