Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Crocker.
Hi Amanda, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always loved to travel! I went to college, graduated, and pursued a healthcare career in the optometry field that I have now been with for nearly nine years. For the longest time, I would take one bigger vacation (usually international) with the PTO I accrued and then do some small trips here and there. Weekend trips to nearby locations have pretty regularly been a part of my life.
When the pandemic happened, the itch to travel was even stronger — so I started doing even more local travels and then also doing more road trips (getting longer and longer the more I did them). I started realizing (even more) just how much can be accomplished in a weekend. Social media has always been a little “photo album” of memories for me–but when I started sharing even more of my weekend travels, I started growing the coolest travel community. Social media started to become such an amazing space for me with this. A space of inspiration, support, like-minded humans, love, helpfulness, all the things! It changed my perspective on it.
Furthermore, when I went through a rough breakup, this was when I realized just how amazing the travel community was. I had humans I hadn’t even met yet checking in on me and asking if I wanted to go hiking with them. When I thought my travels would slow drastically because I didn’t always have someone to go with — boy was I wrong. I had one of the most amazing years of my life and met so many incredible people, who are now some of my closest friends.
And this all fueled my passion more for traveling and adventures, creating community, content creation, photography, and where I am at with everything today! I am extremely grateful for this journey and for everyone involved.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There will always be obstacles and challenges in life. One of my favorite sayings is “Choose your hard”. Eating healthy is hard. Working out is hard. Waking up early is hard. Being anxious and depressed is hard. Not getting enough sleep is hard. Saying no to certain life events and people is hard. Balancing two jobs is hard. In life, we have to choose our hard and what is worth it to us.
With traveling and adventuring– I certainly wish I had more time and flexibility. It’s challenging sometimes to make some travels happen over a weekend only. However, if you want to see the world more and more, you make it work how and when you can. For me, this sometimes means leaving work at 5 pm on a Friday and driving hours to spend a day somewhere I’ve been dreaming of. It’s certainly hard this way, but it’s worth it too.
With my goal of continuing social media and content creation, this means finding time to balance essentially another full-time job on top of my full-time healthcare career. This is exhausting, but again, so worth it to me. The community alongside my journey means the absolute world to me, and it is the whole reason why I do it and am so excited about it! It’s worth staying up until midnight often to do E-Mails, edit photos and videos, respond and chat travels with so many incredible humans, be an encourager, etc!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I work a 9-5 in healthcare in the optometry field, working alongside 5 eye doctors. About a year-and-a-half ago, I decided to also pursue learning more about social media and content creation.
This came about kind of by “accident” while just organically creating such a beautiful community in the travel space. Because of this, I fell in love with socials, content creation, sharing travels, being a source of inspiration to others, etc. I love helping people, and I saw a way to help people different than my 9-5, through social media and doing something I’m so so passionate about (traveling!).
I would say I am known for documenting and sharing my travels, primarily around the PNW. I aim to inspire others to get outside and lead a healthy, active lifestyle through nature experiences. One of my favorite things is to add bits of inspo vibes to my content. I think mental health awareness is huge and I love to add those types of vibes to the things I share.
I’m most proud of the community I’ve created — on all my social platforms! I am surrounded by the KINDEST, most supportive, and encouraging humans–which is exactly the energy I, too, want and hope to give off. And it’s just pretty darn cool if you ask me.
I’ve let go of some of my perfectionism in this journey and just had grace with the fact I will “learn more as I go” in regards to the skillsets, art, photography, etc. People mean the most to me, and again, I’m so grateful for everyone alongside me in this. I hope to help inspire many but also know that you all inspire me so much too.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
The pandemic helped me have a greater appreciation for local travel. There’s so much to explore, and you don’t always have to travel far to see something beautiful. Covid-times helped me look even closer at everything around me.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @adnamacrocker
- Youtube: @adnamacrocker
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@adnamacrocker
Image Credits
Christopher Balladarez, Hunter LeRoy, Parker Burkett, and Mike Dowdell
