March 2008 | From the Editor
Going Places
I got my first magazine assignment by waiting on an editor. I was a 21-year-old college senior, slinging chai and hibiscus coolers at the heart-achingly beautiful Dushanbe Teahouse in Boulder, Colorado. Only a few months short of graduating, my professional prospects were murky. Beyond vague aspirations to make it as a performance artist (my big act involved covering myself in chocolate and tossing donuts at the audience, details I was misguidedly including on an otherwise woefully unremarkable resume), I couldn’t imagine what in the world I would do for cash.
That fateful day, a crew of glamorously disheveled 20-and 30-somethings wandered into the sun-soaked teahouse dining room, seating themselves in my section. They were carrying camera equipment; we got to talking. They explained they were halfway through a cross-country road trip, documenting their adventures for the (now defunct) travel and culture journal, Modern Nomad.
Um… excuse me? Traveling the country, writing about it, filming it… and getting paid? I could feel my heart speed up. There was no way I was letting them leave without getting a foot in the door — an email, a phone number, a lock of hair, something — even if it meant slipping a mickey into their Gen Mai Cha.
My desperation paid off, and within weeks I found myself crafting what would become my first (okay, if not exactly “paid,” then at least published) piece. That piece led to more, and soon I was wiling away the hours writing free stories for Modern Nomad and fantasizing about my sensational would-be life as a travel journalist. Recognizing this wasn’t going to keep a roof over my head — poser modern nomad that I was — I scoured newspapers, magazine websites and the then fledgling online classified Craigslist for media job leads. I’ll admit that on at least several occasions I can recall, I dialed the editorial offices of Lonely Planet and hung up (with all apologies to that hapless long-ago receptionist).
Fast-forward almost a decade, and here I am putting the polish on Whole Life Times’ first ever travel issue. Longtime readers will notice that over the last few months we’ve made a concerted shift toward tying stories and cover images together under an editorial theme. What a novel idea, eh? Email us and let us know what you think of the results.
Of course, in true WLT-style, our take on what it means to explore the world meanders some way from that of your average travel magazine. In this issue, you’ll find stories on “voluntouring” without crossing the globe, the best ways to rebuild a city when disaster strikes and the cultural relativity of time. There are also several decidedly non-travel-related pieces (we’re filing them under the emergent trend “waste not, want not”), proving that no matter how hard we try to reign this baby in, the magazine has a life of its own. We hope you are as delighted as we are by where it takes us.
Speaking of going places, dear LA readers, as some of you know I have relocated to San Francisco, where I am now overseeing our growing family of mags from the comfort of sister publication, Common Ground. Starting next month I am passing the baton to longtime WLT friend and contributor Jessica Ridenour, whose work you are familiar with from our monthly “Get Active” column, among many other excellent stories. I have no doubt you will enjoy getting to know each other. And in the meantime, please stay in touch with me at: [click to e-mail].
—Eliza Thomas, Editor in Chief
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