We found a very unexpected message on our Facebook page a little while back telling us that the wonderful Elizabeth of LizandLemons had nominated us for the Versatile Blogger Award!

LizandLemons is a relatively new blog (written by a postgrad student and avid traveler who loves to learn new languages) that has some awesome/insightful content and we’re excited to follow along on her adventures inspired by the phrase ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade’ (love the pun-ynes!).

What Is The Versatile Blogger Award?

The Versatile Blogger Award is an award nominated by bloggers to other up-and-coming bloggers. It is designed to encourage new bloggers to keep up the good work and help people to discover new blogs. However, there are some criteria for selection. When nominating someone else for a Versatile Blogger Award, you must consider following points:

• The quality of the writing
• The uniqueness of the subjects covered
• The ‘level of love’ displayed in the person(s) writing
• The quality of the photographs

The rules of accepting are simple:

• Thank the person who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog
• Share seven facts about yourself
• List the rules and display the Versatile Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog
• Nominate other bloggers (up to 10) to receive the award

We started blogging quite recently, just before we took off on our year long (at least!) adventure through SE Asia (we packed everything in just carry-ons) and it feels awesome to have been recognized by some fellow travel bloggers! As Life Is Meant For Exploring is just one fish in a vast sea of new travel blogs, we feel so proud of the work we’ve achieved in such little time.

We’re certainly still learning but we’ve come a long way in discerning our brand, what we want to write and share, how to actually write (yes, we get writer’s block!) and use social media, and how to have fun doing it all! As such, we see the award as a huge boost of confidence and validation that we are on the right track!  It truly feels like we are Living Life One Adventure At A Time and are one step closer to our dream of traveling the world full-time!

Tradition of the Versatile Blogger Award Winners

It is tradition that we tell you seven facts about ourselves, so here we go — brace yourselves for seven things you may not know about Alli & TJ…

Seven Facts About Us

1). Current Location and Plans:
We’re currently in Kuala Lumpur (the capital of Malaysia) right outside of China Town and Little India and have just hit our 1-month traveling mark! We can’t believe how fast the time has flown and that we’ve already done an entire month in Indonesia (some highlights were the Uluwatu Temple, our time in Ubud, and an amazing waterfall hike in Lombok!). We’re excited to see what Malaysia has in store for us next.

2). First Trip Together:
Our first international trip together was to Chile at the end of Alli’s semester abroad there in college. TJ joined at the end of the trip, met Alli’s host mama and friends, saw the town of Valparaiso, and we spent a month traveling around together from Valpo down to Northern Patagonia. We’ll make sure to make it to Southern Patagonia on one of our next adventures.

3). How’d We Get The Travel Bug?
Again on the international theme… Alli was born abroad (UK) and spent lots of time traveling and living abroad as the daughter of expats. TJ caught the travel bug a little later in life on a trip to Japan and our trip to Chile. We’d always talked about traveling and living abroad together and decided we didn’t want to wait until we were retired. We wanted to enjoy traveling now and get away from the 9-5. So, we spent a year prepping and saving before we quit our jobs to take off on an adventure of a lifetime with one-way tickets to Bali, Indonesia!

4). Biggest Inspiration:
Alli: My biggest inspiration is my parents. If it weren’t for them I wouldn’t have had the international upbringing that I did and would likely not have felt the same draw for travel that I do now. More than that though, they are both amazing people. Dad is cool, calm, collected, brilliant, and one of the kindest people I have ever met. We can talk about anything and he’s a fantastic travel companion who loves doing as the locals do.

Mom is vibrant, fun, wise, spunky, and loves authentic (i.e. not touristy) experiences. She’s the one who would rather ride a bus with locals, produce, and maybe some chickens and goats and share stories with other passengers along the way than take a tourist bus. May I be able to travel with them for years to come!

TJ:   My biggest inspiration comes from my community. I grew up in the unique small town of Ashland, Oregon where most everyone is connected and taught the value of loving and caring for each other. We are a community of dreamers who strive to break outside the paradigm that modern society has created to forge our own paths through life, no matter what other people may think or say. We live for adventure. We fight for what is right for this planet and for the greater good. And we love unconditionally. The people that I had the great fortune to learn from and to grow up with are my inspiration because it is these people who I credit with making me the man I am today. I see all of the amazing things that come out of this small town and I am truly humbled, but also motivated because I know that together there is nothing in this world that we cannot accomplish.

Shout out to all of my A-Town crew, wherever you are in the world just know that you are always in my heart.

5). Our “Cheesy” History
Alright, well it’s not necessarily cheesy (but some people think it is!)… we’re high school sweethearts who got together at the age of 14 and never looked back. We’ve definitely had our ups and downs but we’ve grown together and individually through it all and couldn’t be happier that we’re following our dreams and seeing where life takes us. Hard to believe, but we’ll hit our 10 year (crazy, we know!) anniversary while we’re here in Asia. We’ll have to see where we want to go 🙂 let us know if you have suggestions!

6). Our Blog:
Life Is Meant For Exploring was born out of our love for mini weekend vacations, hiking, photography (we started as an Instagram account first), fitness, and our trip to Chile. Now it has evolved into something much larger! At Life Is Meant For Exploring we help promote and inspire a life of exploration with a focus on travel, outdoor adventure, experiencing local culture, and breaking away from the pack to forge a path of your very own. Our promise is to share crazy and honest stories, epic photography, thoughtful reflections & culturally respectful realities. Whether you’re traveling the world, sitting in your backyard, or looking for a fresh start, our goal is to show you how to enjoy life one adventure at a time. If you’re looking to collaborate shoot us a message!

7).  Next on the bucket list:
We’d like to do a cross-country (US) and potentially cross-continent road trip in a camper van to visit National Parks, amazing outdoor spaces, and friends in different places. We’d also love to build a tiny home together (when we’re a bit more ready to settle down anyway!) and continue to live minimalistic lives. We’d love a tiny house with a big yard so we can spend plenty of time outside and even have a garden.

Still curious about us? Check out our About page and 23 Fun Facts About Us!

Our Nominations:

We’d like to nominate the following bloggers for this great award! (not everyone is a strictly “new” blogger but is great nonetheless).

Life Creator’s Community – In such a busy and tumultuous world it can be incredibly important to take a step back, be mindful, and make intentional decisions that will lead you towards the life you want to live. Life Creator’s Community written by Helle Hansen is just that. It’s a blog written in order to spread the word and to help out anyone who wants to discover their passions and start living a life a bit out of the ordinary, where they are the creator. We love this concept!

She’s On A Budget– Ana Paty has got the travel bug and loves big adventures on small budgets. She’s a university student studying in Mexico and writes about her adventures around the globe with some epic photography sprinkled in. We love her personal reflections in some of her posts and how she embraces budgeting while people find budgeting scary! We’ll certainly be following her adventure 🙂

Fit 4 Adventures – We’d love to pass the award on to a fellow traveler and woman after one of our loves – fitness and outdoor adventures! Meet Hailey who runs Fit 4 Adventures and is out there inspiring people to reach their goals all over the world.

Kylie And The World – The concept of traveling by yourself, especially as a female is often daunting (Alli has definitely thought so in the past!). Kylie takes on solo travel and blogs about her experiences from around the world. She’s also got a great Wanderlist (that may inspire your very own) and crosses off her items as she achieves them!

All Days Wild – Is a blog and concept that hits home for us. Written by Sammy (who calls herself a roaming adventurist), All Days Wild is a mindset to forever and always live as a wild one. Wild may mean different things to different people, but to Sammy Wild is about freedom, inspiration, determination, and courage.

Cheeseburger Abroad – Created by Hannah Meek, an aspiring cartoonist and storyteller from the US, Cheeseburger Abroad was created to explore values, ethics, and philosophies in places all over the world. She’s currently traveling SE Asia (just like us!) and puts her heart and soul into her cartoons and posts. Plus her posts are fun to read and we wish we could draw some awesome cartoons like hers!

Travel For Change – Is a new travel blog, written by Cherie, centered in the voluntourism niche. Her blog focuses on SE Asia and the potential determinants of volunteering with children abroad (particularly in orphanages) as “Children are often negatively impacted by the tourism industry and travelers can unknowingly do more harm through their humanitarian work due to a system which often places profit over protection.” Cherie hopes to continue to raise awareness for volunteers and advocate for the rights of the child.

You don’t have to accept the award, but if you do, simply follow the instructions above! And let us know the link to your post so I can check it out! 🙂

Thanks so much again to LizandLemons for nominating us!