We are different. And that’s a good thing.
You and I are different. Every Skimbaco Team member is very different. Skimbaco Lifestyle is very different from many other websites (
here is how to subscribe). And that’s exactly where I want to be. And I think you agree.
I am also a very different kind of blogger, and have been neglecting SkimbacoLifestyle.com. I am sorry if you missed me – but glad if you were doing other things and enjoying life! I decided it was time to take time off and do what I preach, and live life to the fullest and enjoy summer with my family. I’m still not convinced I am ready to come back to work, but I have missed my online community and you. I think now if ever is a good time to define what Skimbaco really means – to you and me.
Take the “test” to see if you are a Skimbacoer, and read what kind of global citizenship I believe in.
Are you a Skimbacoer?
As the owner of Skimbaco Lifestyle, I am also often asked what kind of travel stories we focus on. Maybe it’s silly of me – but I don’t want to be labeled as anything else but as “Skimbaco” and we appeal to people who have found their own “skimbacos.” Maybe you like luxury travel – but your budget only allows a splurge every now and then. Maybe you mainly travel with your family, but also like to take romantic trips or trips with your friend. Maybe you travel for business and see enough world, so when you are home, you just want to enjoy home. We get that, it’s “normal” in our world that you don’t fall into one category!
While there are well-known travel bloggers who focus only on certain aspect of traveling, we are not your typical travel site, and the know-it-all resource for certain type of travel tips. We believe in living life to the fullest, and experiencing a large scale of different experiences in life, and THEN deciding which lifestyle is meant for you, and how much (if any) traveling it includes. Many of our loyal readers are local experts in their own area, and rarely ever travel to far away places, but they have an appreciation to global lifestyle and their own local environment.
If you answer YES to at least 4-5 of the following marks, you most likely are a Skimbacoer.
1. You want to adventure and experience new things, one day it can be trying a new sport, the next day it can be trying a new treatment at the spa. Trying the new dance class at the gym and trying a new nail color count as being open minded to new things.
2. You like things money can buy, but money isn’t everything for you. You realize what is important in life for you, and creating a lifestyle that allows you to do things you are passionate about is more important to you than making a huge paycheck. Luckily being passionate often pays off, and you can live comfortably, but you are also ready to make sacrifices in your day-to-day spending to work on your long term goals.
3. You are comfortable alone, but also like to be social. You are confident in yourself, and don’t need a huge crowd to prove your awesomeness. You can be are equally content in spending a day alone than being surrounded by multiple people.
4. You like social media, and sometimes feel you depend on it, but you have no problem logging off. When there is a new social media network your friends are talking about, you join immediately! Or most likely you will introduce it to your friends. However, taking a day, or week off from social media is not going to be a problem for you, after all, nothing beats being social face to face instead of on screen.
5. You don’t have a problem with splurging on things you like, even if it means you have to save money on other things. In fact, you happily save money on the things that are not important to you so you can get more of what you love. This means that sometimes your friends won’t understand why you don’t spend money on simple things that “you could afford.” (Examples: your ski gear cost more than your car. You spent more money on your vacation than on your kitchen make-over. Your handbag cost more than your monthly rent/mortgage.)
6. You totally think YOLO and carpe diem, but remember that whatever you do today in the moment affects your future as well. You know how to enjoy the moment, but you are not careless, and most likely you have even bigger plans for the future.
7. You love to travel, but you also love where you live. You totally sign the “east or west, home is best” saying. Traveling is great, but nothing beats home and your hometown. You can find so many things to do where you live, and many even consider you a local expert for the best things to do and see in your area, regardless if you have lived in your current hometown for a year or a few decades. Bottom line: you know how to find the best where you live – and how to move to somewhere else if the place isn’t what you love!
8. If you invited all of your friends in the same party, it would be a mix of very different kinds of people. You might have very strong believes, and strict opinions on some things, but you are always open to hear different views, and most likely you don’t agree with everything all of your friends say or believe in. You are confident enough to surround yourself with people who you like regardless if they don’t always agree with you. You enjoy hearing two sides of every story.
9. You swim fluently in different waters, but might not have found the perfect pond for you yet. Meaning that you feel like you get along with many different types of people and in many different kinds of groups of people, whether they share the same believes on things or come from certain cultural backgrounds, and you are a great member in several communities, but you don’t feel that you 100% belong to many of these groups.
10. You feel you are a global citizen. You love your home country, and have a strong sense of nationality, but you respect other nationalities, countries and cultures, and feel you are not just a citizen of your country, but a citizen of the world. You are open-minded learning about other cultures, and you also like to tell and teach others about your country and culture.
How many YES answers did you get? Leave a comment!
What kind of global citizen are you?
I believe you can be a global citizen and globally minded, but appreciate the local traditions and cultures. In fact, being a global citizen in today’s world to me means that we appreciate and educate ourselves with the diversity of cultures, instead of trying to blend them in one. If you believe in being a global citizen and adventuring the world, you are most likely a Skimbacoer.
You know when you travel and meet new people, and they ask you “where are you from?”
When people ask that question of our family it’s kind of difficult to give a straight answer. I am from Finland, my husband is from Austin, Texas. Our children were born in Finland, Germany and New York, and we currently live in Sweden. It’s enough to confuse anyone. While in most families the mix might not be as confusing, being a blended-family is quite common, whether it’s mixed nationalities, cultures, religious believes, or languages spoken in the family.
Maybe you too have diverse cultural background, live in a different country than your own, or celebrate more than one national culture in your life? Cool, so do we.
What kind of traveler are you?
I have written often about not letting others define you, or what is adventurous to you. I believe in trying new things, traveling to new places and being adventurous, but I don’t believe in the definitions or being stereotyped in any category.
For most people it’s easy to answer where your roots are, but it might not be as easy to answer to “what kind of traveler are you”.
Travelers tend to describe themselves as a tourist, vacationer, traveler, nomadic or expat depending on the amount of travel they do. Or common is also call yourself a solo-, family- or couple-traveler for the company you travel with. The disposable money we have also often defines whether we are budget travelers or luxury travelers – or something in between. The activities we do on our travels easily can define as adventure travelers, culinary travelers or cultural travelers. The traveling pace differentiates those who do micro-adventures and weekend trips to those who believe in slow travel and taking their time. Expats move to a different country to live and work for typically a pre-determined time, nomads move from place to place, where they can find work, or as a way of living.
I really don’t know many people who can be very narrowly described as any one type of traveler. In fact I even have travel blogger friends who have been very famous as “solo female adventure travelers” but are now married, and enjoying a slower pace of cultural travels with their husbands. I think it’s normal for everyone that we evolve and change not just as people, but as what kind of travelers we are.
So, you like several kinds of traveling, and do often combination travels? That’s cool, so do we.
Raising global citizens
So, you like adventures, but you also have kids? Cool, so do we. Being a parent doesn’t mean that you have to stop doing the things you love (well, within a reason).
Many of you, our readers, are also parents, and raising global citizens. In our latest magazine issue we interviewed 10 traveling kids. Some of the children have lived in the same place all their lives, but have visited over 20 countries whereas some children have moved around the world. It was very interesting to read these young Skimbacers’ take on traveling.
I think this conversation between my sister Laura, and my daughter Gabriella, who is now 12 years old sort of describes the way many Skimbacoers and their feel – comfortable in many cultures and places, but more like from their own little world.
My nieces, Laura’s daughters, were going swimming in the sea in Finland, despite the 14C/57F weather, and she asked Gabriella if she wanted to join them.
Aunt Laura: Gabriella, are you going swimming with the girls?
Gabriella: No! I’m Finnish, but I am not THAT Finnish.
Aunt Laura: Oh I see… Are you more Texan then?
Gabriella: I wouldn’t go that far… I am multi-cultural, and more like from my own country. The land of Awesome.
Raising global citizens can be tricky sometimes.
At school, I often feel I am different, and more mature than the other kids”
said 11-year old Kristian when we discussed about our traveling lifestyle.
Yeah, and we are like witnesses of life, and see it evolve everywhere”
said 12-year-old Gabriella.
Traveling, and moving to new places is an exciting and adventurous way of life, but it’s not always easy for children. As parents, we are raising global citizens who have respect for different cultures, religions, and ways of life, and learn as they adjust living their everyday life. On one hand our children have learned to adjust so much that they can feel at home in many places, but when asked about roots, home or truly belonging somewhere, the answer is “Home. What home?”
I hope you will take time to read all of the interviews, because they gave us so much to think about. For example when asked what is different between their previous country and the one they are in now, the answer can be something obvious, like people speaking a new language, or something that doesn’t have anything to do with a new culture, like now going to a new school.
The everyday life is very similar around the world, and children can see the cultural differences often only as they apply it in their own daily lives. What unites Maria from Norway, Emma from Canada, and Dakota from Australia is their excitement to discover something new, and learn as they travel the world. These kids have a lot to teach to all of us about being a citizen of the world – and being a Skimbacoer.
My mission is to inspire you to live life to the fullest and find your own “skimbaco,” how you enjoy life where ever you are in the moment. For ideas for travel, home, food and fashion,
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