I am Amanda Glaser and I am the face behind Sketchbook Expeditions. I am an Army Wife and Mom to a beautiful little miracle girl who is currently 4 somehow. I just wanted to introduce myself and explain my journey to becoming a travel agent at 32 years old.
Beginning of Life
Growing up, my parents always managed to figure out a way to get us kids on one big vacation a year. I am the oldest of 5, so that is not always an easy thing to do. Every year, it was usually during spring break, we would go to Florida. They always tried to get us one park day at the most magical place on earth or Universal. These trips are some of my favorite memories with my siblings and my cousins when they would go at the same time. We always rented a house or condo and got to go explore and do things around the area.
To this day, we still take a trip to the Orlando area every year and now we have our significant others, my daughter, and for the first time this year, my brand-new niece! Growing up in Michigan, being able to get away from the cold in the winter months is always something we look forward to.
After High School
After graduating high school, I was definitely lost in what I wanted to do. I grew up in the generation where we were taught by teachers and parents and every other figure, that we had to go to college after we graduated, or we would go nowhere in life. I decided to go into community college for 2 years, because I just didn’t think my goal of becoming an archaeologist was going to be feasible. I ended up choosing a path that I was told would be the right choice to make lots of money, which was to go into the medical field and become a Physical Therapist.
After finishing community college, I transferred to Grand Valley State University to pursue that physical therapy degree. After the second semester, I had failed physiology and knew that it really wasn’t the right path for me. I shopped around for different degrees that year and kept coming back to wanting to be able to be an archaeologist and travel the world. In doing that, I found out there was a degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management, and there was an emphasis in tourism. I found myself loving the classes and internships and just knew that that was what I wanted to do with my life.
At the same time, I was deciding the medical field was just not for me, my boyfriend (now husband) was deciding that the path he was on wasn’t right for him either. While I chose a different path in college, he decided to choose a different path in life, and joined the Army.
Becoming an Army Spouse
We got married a couple months before he left for basic, during my senior year of college, and while he was at basic and AIT, I did my victory lap in college, because I changed degrees too many times, and then moved down to Tennessee with him once he got his PCS orders and I graduated with my degree.
This was in 2014, so now a decade ago. Once I got down here, I tried so hard to find the right type of job, that would keep me happy, but it was difficult. I ended up with a travel company that was specifically selling vacations to the military but ended up quitting after a few months because they just seemed too pushy, and I didn’t feel right coercing soldiers into buying into something they just couldn’t afford.
My Woodworking/Crafting
I floated for a while, finding odd jobs that just didn’t pay enough, then started my woodworking and crafting business in 2016. I still have this business, Three Two Three, and it has now evolved into a custom gifts and engraving business. In 2017, we started having difficulties with fertility and losing some pregnancies. My pregnancy in 2019 was a difficult one, but I ended up having our beautiful baby girl 6 weeks early. By the time I was planning on getting back into my business, Covid hit, and we all know how that was on everyone.
Since having our daughter, my husband and I both decided she was going to be the most spoiled little girl, because she may end up being our only child. She has now been on 6 trips to the Orlando area, 2 of those were weeklong stays on Disney property, 1 trip we went to just Magic Kingdom, 1 trip was just to Hollywood Studios, 1 trip we went to Peppa Pig World and Legoland, and 1 trip where we just hung out by the pool at the rental house and explored other things around the area. At the time of writing this, we are 1 week out from our next trip to the area and are planning on taking a day to go explore Disney Hotels.
Where I am today
Any who, while planning our trip and after getting back from our last full week trip to Walt Disney World, it really made me realize how much I missed the travel industry and made me remember that this was what I wanted to do with my life, so I started looking into it. After about 3 weeks of research and just getting the courage to say, I’m doing this and I will be successful, I finally pulled the trigger and became an agent under Boardwalk Travel Agency.
I’ve been loving learning about everything and am definitely realizing how much I’m actually going to need to learn to do this all, but I am so happy with my decision and love that I can work from wherever and can still do my engraving business and stay home with our little girl, since she only goes to school a couple days a week.
I am still learning and will be the first to tell you that I am brand new to this side of planning trips, but I am loving it and am honestly so excited to start getting your vacation dreams planned and get you on some awesome adventures.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions. If you are ready to get started on planning a Disney vacation, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/pigTDzYjxXUqMp3h7. I will get back to you within 48 hours with your personalized Disney vacation quote.
Thank you for reading my journey and I hope you subscribe to get all my tips for vacationing, including Disney and Universal vacation tips, that I am getting ready to write about for you!
-Amanda
