When I was a senior in college, I had the privilege to travel to England and Ireland for a study abroad class. While in Ireland, we were able to visit one of the Aran Islands: Inis Mor.

Everywhere we went in Ireland captured my fancy, and I would highly recommend anyone with a wild imagination to visit there. But out of all the places we visited, Inis Mor stuck out to me. I wrote a short travel memoir about it as soon as I got home and then forgot about it for a while.

I've never thought of myself as a travel writer. Of course I loved journaling about my travels and have written several other short travel memoirs, but I never thought to publish them. I was a fiction writer, what was I doing writing nonfiction? I soon realized that was the wrong way to think. I shouldn't limit myself to a particular type of writing, not when I have so much to explore and learn! I may not be good at all of them, but I would regret not giving different types of writing a try. That's part of the fun!

I went on to publish my travel memoir, "A Walk Around Inis Mor", on Travel Thru History, an online journal of other travel and historical writing which fit me just perfectly. I'm pretty proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone for this one, and was pleasantly surprised when it was picked to be the featured story!