When I started blogging, I had no idea what to expect.  It took some courage for me to put my thoughts out there for anyone to read because I have always guarded them so closely.  It’s almost like being in high school again.  There are moments in which you rate your self-worth on how many people visit your site in a day.  It’s as if it is a measure of your popularity– kind of like in high school.  When I first started, I would check my stats daily to see how many people gave a s#!+ about what I had to say.  Then I started to realize that I just didn’t care, because there were so many more authentic benefits I was already reaping. My life became more fun regardless of who was paying attention.  So I stopped worrying about who was reading, and I just focused on how much I was enjoying my new hobby.

Then my life got crazy.  And I stopped blogging altogether.  I just didn’t have time, and I just didn’t feel like it.  So I quit writing for 6 weeks.  I felt guilty, but I gave myself permission to take a little break.  With that permission came a little freedom.  And the day after I granted myself that freedom came the comment:  “Hi, Laura! I work at a travel magazine and would like to use one of your images. Can you contact me?”

I thought it was a scam.  I thought it was too good to be true.  I didn’t trust that something this cool could happen.  Who even reads my blog?

But after some correspondence, here we are.  My photo is in the October 2011 issue of National Geographic Traveler Magazine……twice!

This is the photo……and it appears on pages 65 and 115.  The piece is titled “Taste of Travel.”

These tacos were from Las Palapas in Playa del Carmen, and they (along with the setting) were absolutely perfect.  The blurb with the photo is from Jacques Pepin about shrimp tacos from La Fragata, my other favorite fish taco place.  (Do not miss either of these, by the way.)

Okay, so it’s a little small, and the print with the credit to me is a little hard to find… but at least for a moment, I have arrived!