We recently connected with Krista Landis and have shared our conversation below.
Krista, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I was 20 (almost 21) years old when I got married and 22 when my first child was born. Life was not easy being so young, and discovering that the person I thought I had married was a liar who had been hiding behind a mask and a charade. For 10 almost 11 years of my life I lived in constant fear, worry, constant stress and walked on egg shells because I never knew when he would explode at me or the kind of reaction he would have. Home life was very volatile for years. Prior to marriage he had hid who he was, his past addictions and convinced me that he was someone completely opposite of who he actually was. Once those facades came down and his true colors were revealed I learned how to live in the shadows. How to survive in a tumultuous environment, how to be a single parent and how to keep things that were important to me hidden. Such as my love of adventure, exploring new places and deep love for travel.
Shortly after my 2nd child (my son) was born my (ex) husband became increasingly controlling, manipulative and fell back into his old habits (crutch of alcohol and drug abuse). He was emotionally abusive, neglectful, physically, psychologically, financially and verbally abusive to me as well as the children. It took everything I had in me to muster up the courage to share some of what we were experiencing with 2 close friends and a few family members & they helped me create a plan to escape. On the afternoon of December 27th, 2011 I was faced with a life altering decision. I made a split second decision to flee with my children & only the few things I could quickly place in my car after a dangerous incident occured involving my ex & my son. The kids and I then lived in hiding for nearly 2 years. Taking that risk, without a clue where we would go, how I would provide for the kids and I (at the time I left I was a SAHM & full time college student with no job). Stepping out of the chaos and storm that constantly swirled around my ex and starting over from scratch was terrifying. Not just because he threatened our safety or because I was living off my student loans, but because I had no clue if this risk, this move would change the whole trajectory of our lives.
Over the course of the next 2 years I single parented my kids while continuing to take 24 credits/full load as an online college student all while gaining back my confidence (after my ex had diminished, belittled and demeaned my thoughts and my feelings for over a decade). I focused on taking things one step at a time, re-learning to trust & believe in myself again, how to pursue things that made me happy, leaning into my strengths and starting over from scratch. It was a long road and I wouldn’t be where I am today without the love and support of my wonderful husband (a childhood friend who I was reacquainted with after the kids and I fled our abusive home), my children, close family & friends. With their support and lots of time to reflect, learn and grow over the years I’ve discovered I am more capable, resilient and stronger than I have given myself credit for & able to accomplish anything I put my mind to.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Hello everyone, I’m Krista the founder of Stamps in My Passport. A travel and lifestyle blog & website where I share insights about travel destinations, travel tips, guides, travel itineraries and travel stories in hopes of encouraging my readers to get out and explore more.
I have been traveling since I was a baby. I grew up in a family with parents who were born on opposite sides of the country, met in college, married and had 3 children & then spent my childhood traveling across the US to visit family & to explore the country. I was 17 on my first international trip & spent 3 weeks traveling around England. Other adventures took me to several provinces in Canada, 3 weeks in Mexico City and surrounding areas and visiting 38 of the 50 states all before I was 20 years old. All of those adventures instilled a deep love & passion for exploring new places around the globe, meeting new people and learning about their culture and lifestyles & discovering unique destinations.
For the past decade I’ve been homeschooling our children and that has allowed our family to enjoy freedom in our schedules and flexibility to travel as a family whenever and wherever we wanted over the years. We’ve enjoyed many marvelous road-trip adventures and cross country expeditions as a family and made countless memories together. Most of those travels incorporated learning opportunities and unique experiences that we were able to share as a family. As a couple we’ve traveled around multiple European destinations as well as 20 US states together and as an individual I’ve thoroughly explored 9 countries and 45 US states. I live to travel and travel to live. For me they go hand in hand. There is nothing quite like seeing a destination for the first time that you’ve been reading & dreaming about, researching, and spent months or years planning & saving for. It is one of the best feelings to check off locations from the bucket list!
On my blog/website https://stampsinmypassport.com/ readers can easily access my travel itineraries & travel guides, read about my most recent adventures, stories and follow along on our journey. For other inside scoop details, travel information and inspiration readers can head to my Instagram account at: https://www.instagram.com/stampsinmypassport1/ or over on Threads at https://www.threads.net/@stampsinmypassport1. I’d love to meet you there to swap travel stories and chat about where you’re traveling to next!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
As a type A personality, I’m an organizer, planner and list maker by nature. Those abilities have all come in handy while I’m planning and arranging our next travel itinerary. Over the years I’ve honed those skills and created quite the repertoire of itineraries to choose from & I’m always adding more to the collection. I love to help others organize and prep for an upcoming adventure, and I’ve really enjoyed sharing that expertise with others while I help them plan their dream getaway. On my blog I share about our travels, the lessons we’ve learned, travel mishaps and life changing experiences to help encourage & inspire you while you’re in the process of culminating ideas, and gathering information for a dream trip.
The ability to organize, create a detailed list of must do tasks, itemizing and categorizing goals/to-do’s and activities, also being a natural leader and planner are some of the qualities that have aided in my business. Each itinerary is carefully crafted to reflect my clients travel styles, hopes, dream activities, unique finds and hidden gems & create a seamless flow that ensures everyone enjoys the trip. With the goal of minimizing my clients stress during the planning process. I’ve always been a natural at planning and was often tasked with arranging the layout for a newspaper spread in my high school paper, planning an event for school in leadership class, the captain of my cheerleading squad or the leader of school projects and as an adult I’m often the one creating itineraries for meetings, planning and organizing group gatherings, finalizing and organizing details for a conference, creating lists, plans for group activities or outings and I’m always tasked as the travel planner/itinerary creator when I travel.
Over the years I’ve strived to remember a few key things: achieving my dreams won’t happen overnight, but with persistence, patience & some planning I’ll overcome the tests and trials that will come. Take things one day at a time and trust the process. My advice to others beginning their journey is to plan ahead as much as possible, create a road map for your success, look for & find the areas that you excel in and can provide something meaningful/valuable, insight/help solve a problem etc. and focus on doing that to the best of your abilities. Provide your clients/audience with something of value and worth. That will keep them coming back for more. Be honest and provide them with answers to a common problem, or valuable information. Stay positive through the trials, don’t lose hope during hard times & remember there’s no reward without a little risk!
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
I’m a very list oriented person so I tend to do best when I have things I need to do, tasks, activities and events written down on lists & in my calendar. Getting all of my mental notes out of my head & all written down in one place really helps to reduce my worries about forgetting something important. Having a list helps me feel oriented and makes it easier for me to focus on the tasks at hand. I like to work on completing several smaller tasks at a time (if possible) and get them checked off the list which gives me a great feeling of accomplishment when I see everything that’s already been marked complete, then I move on to larger tasks. I’d recommend creating a list (or several… When I’m working on muliple projects at once I like to categorize my lists and somtimes I uses sub-lists to really help me keep track of everything.) to help you feel more organized, productive and accomplished. There’s something about seeing all of the items marked off as complete that always makes me feel so happy. 🙂
I’d recommend using Google Docs, notes on your phone, notepad or even texting yourself notes if that would help. Whatever format works best for you. Personally, for most things I like to carry a written note that I can cross off tasks as I complete them. I also use notes on my phone and then mark with a check mark when something is done. With longer lists or when planning an event or working on a project (or multiple) I love using Google Docs and Google Sheets.
One of the best things that I’ve learned to do is to write out my worries and then give them over to God. By releasing them over to him I no longer feel bogged down by the weight of them and can rest knowing He will provide the strength I need to accomplish every single task. My recommendation would be to find a way to release the worry and stress, whether that’s through prayer, meditation or confiding in a close friend/confidant it always helps to share your burdens and having someone to talk things over with. Someone you can unload some of your stress/worries and trust to give you support & advice if needed. Confiding in my spouse & best friend about the things that are weighing on me is always so beneficial. Having a listening ear, support and encouragement and knowing I can rely on them gives me the boost needed to keep going.
I also like to journal my thoughts, feelings, prayers and life events. Writing about the events and everyday life happenings, both grand and smaller scale, my experiences and ponderings has been a wonderful way to reflect, let my emotions have a safe & welcoming space and has been so helpful when I’m overwhelmed or stressed. Knowing I can write whatever I’m thinking, say whatever I want and include whatever I feel is so freeing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://stampsinmypassport.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stampsinmypassport1/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stampsinmypassport1
- Other: [email protected]
Image Credits
Cover photo only is by Erica Miller at https://www.ericamiller.photography/
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
