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The Randiverse

@therandiverse

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Welcome to my universe. 🪐✨
📍Pgh
• Co-Founder: @blackonarrival
• STR: @yourcozyhome412

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📍Mexico City, 3 months, 2025.I went because my life got upheaved. USAID was dismantled, my job disappeared, and suddenly I had a choice: scramble to rebuild what was comfortable, or live out a dream I’d been postponing.I chose Mexico City - partly to test if I could actually live there long term, partly because I needed somewhere to land while I figured out what was next.I knew it would push me. I didn’t realize how much it would break me open.Somewhere between navigating a city in recovering Spanish, eating alone at restaurants where I was the only Black woman for blocks, and building a routine in a place where nobody knew my name and stares my way were common… something shifted.I remembered that I’m actually capable of much more than I’ve been allowing myself to attempt.For years I’d been playing it safe. Comfortable. Staying in my lane. And that comfort was costing me - my courage, my curiosity, the part of me that used to believe my life could be bigger than what I could see from here.Mexico City didn’t give me answers. It gave me my nerve (and dare I say my groove) back.So I’m walking into 2026 building two businesses - a consulting practice and a travel company (@blackonarrival) - and for the first time in a long time, I’m not scared. I’m not tentative. I’m not waiting for permission or the perfect moment.I’m building with the kind of confidence that only comes from proving to yourself that you can handle the uncomfortable parts. That you can be the new person in the room. That you can start over, in a new city, in a non-native language, and not just survive but actually come alive.This year I’m done playing small. I spent 3 months last year remembering who tf I am. And now — in the words of king @doechii — I 👏🏾 want 👏🏾 my 👏🏾 things. 👏🏾If you’ve been waiting for a sign to bet on yourself, to do the scary thing, to build the life you actually want - this is it. The courage doesn’t come before you start. It comes from starting.Let’s build something meaningful and worth being proud of in 2026.—(Ok… I’m a liiiiittle 👌🏾 scared, but I know I got this.) by @therandiverse

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6 months ago

If you missed the big announcement yesterday, where was you?? 🤨We released our 2026 group travel destinations! (We squeezed in an early 2027 trip to give you time to prep, since it’s a big one 😏)✨ CHICAGO: June 4-8, 2026✨ MEXICO CITY: November 5-9, 2026✨ CAPE TOWN: February 2027Chicago details will drop first (we’re finalizing experiences and pricing this week). Mexico City and Cape Town details coming this spring.Join the waitlist to get everything first—itineraries, pricing, booking links. Once we hit 10 spots per trip, it’s done.Link in bio. Where will we see you? Tell us! 👇🏾 by @therandiverse

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6 months ago

With all due respect. Stop it. by @therandiverse

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5 months ago

Once a year, Alishia sends me this video with no context.And once a year, I crack up all over again.That’s what traveling together gives you. Join us in Chicago. June 4-8, 2026. 10 spots. Waitlist gets first access. Link in bio. by @therandiverse

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5 months ago

We had just seen @usher perform in Paris. And when I tell you it was incredible… 5th row seats in an intimate venue in Paris. UN 👏🏾 REAL 👏🏾The concert ended, and Alishia and I were sitting outside the venue on a bench, still buzzing from the show, not quite ready to go back to the hotel.Then 2 Black women (Chianti and Tirrany) walked by, also clearly coming from the concert, also in that post-show glow.One of them made a comment about the show. We responded. They sat down.And we talked. For probably two hours.We talked about travel, about being Black women in Paris, about Usher (obviously), about the strangeness and beauty of being in a foreign city surrounded by other Black women who were also there by choice, also experiencing joy.Chianti and Tirrany are a part of our story. Part of why we believe in what travel can create between strangers.Tell us in the comments if you’ve ever spent the day with a stranger you met abroad?Link in bio for our 2026 travel waitlist. by @therandiverse

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5 months ago

It’s Galentine’s season. The time when everyone’s posting their friendship photo dumps and writing captions about their day ones.Ours look a little different.Because when we think about the women who’ve shaped our lives most. The ones we call when something big happens, the ones who know our patterns and call us on our stuff, the ones we’d trust with anything — we met most of them on the road.Three of my (Randi’s) closest friends? I met them all abroad. Two in Kyrgyzstan during my Peace Corps service. And one — Alishia — in the Dominican Republic during a teach English abroad program that changed both of our lives. Not at home. Not in college. Not through carefully curated networking events or mutual friends who thought we’d “really hit it off.”We met them in foreign countries. In hotel lobbies and language classes and random encounters that shouldn’t have mattered but somehow changed everything.This is a love letter to those women. And to what travel makes possible when you’re open to it.Read the full story of the women we’ve met abroad on our blog. Link in bio.Tell us in the comments if you’ve ever made a sister out of a stranger because of traveling? by @therandiverse

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6 months ago

We’re going to 3 cities in 2026. (Ok… we dropped a 2027 in there too.)CHICAGO: June 4-8, 2026No passport required. Deep Black history. Black-owned excellence. Architecture, jazz, food, and wine. The trip that proves premium travel doesn’t need a 10-hour flight.MEXICO CITY: November 5-9, 2026Markets, mezcal, murals, and magic. Afro-Mexican history most people don’t know exists. A city that holds you.CAPE TOWN: February ‘27 (TBD)Beach. Wine country. Culture. Ring in 2027 somewhere unforgettable.Three completely different trips. Same philosophy: ease-first, culturally rich, small groups where you can actually be yourself.8-10 women per trip. That’s it.Chicago details dropping first (we’re finalizing experiences and pricing this week). Mexico City and Cape Town details coming this spring.Join the waitlist to get everything first—itineraries, pricing, booking links. Once we hit 10 spots per trip, it’s done.Link in bio. Which one are you booking? by @therandiverse

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6 months ago

After a decade of solo travel, I’m finally ready to admit the truth: I was lonely.I started in 2016 - Cartagena for spring break while getting my MBA at @howard1867. People tried to talk me out of going to Colombia for my first international trip alone. They had nightmares of Narcos. But I wasn’t afraid. I went and had the time of my life. Complete freedom to make every choice, no pressure to keep moving, just me and a city I’d never seen before.I kept going. More cities, more stamps in my passport, even a few scary incidents. But it was all proof that I could handle anything alone.But after a few more trips, something shifted.It started to feel lonely. I’d meet other travelers and it was nice, but there was something different about having someone on MY trip, having the same experiences as me. Someone to look at and say “girl, are you seeing this? 👀”Someone to laugh with when things go sideways. Someone who’d remember it the same way I would.Solo travel taught me I could do hard things alone. But now I’m tired of doing everything alone.I spent years proving I didn’t need anyone. Now my best friend and I are building a travel company (@blackonarrival ) specifically designed for Black women who are done with that same exhausting narrative. Women who can absolutely travel solo (we’ve proven that a thousand times over) but who are choosing not to anymore.Because there’s a difference between “”I can do this alone”” and “”I want to do this alone.””For now, solo international travel is on pause. It has its place and I’ll be back to it eventually. But right now? I’m looking for community travel. I’m looking for shared sunsets and inside jokes and “”remember when we...”” stories with people who were actually there.I’m done being capable and alone. I want to be capable and connected.If you’re in that same season - where you’ve proven you can do it solo but you’re craving your people - that’s exactly who we’re building for.I wrote about the full journey from solo travel hero to community travel advocate in “I’ve Traveled to 20+ Countries — 7 of Them Solo. Here’s Why I’m Done.” Read the full story at the link in my bio.-Randi by @therandiverse

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6 months ago

Happy Black History Month, y’all. ✊🏾#weareBlackOnArrival by @therandiverse

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6 months ago

At some point, travel stopped being about how much we could squeeze into a trip.We’ve done the early flights, the packed itineraries, the “we’ll sleep when we get home” energy. And don’t get us wrong—those seasons were fun. But traveling together over the years taught us something else: how a trip feels stays with you longer than what you checked off.Now we care about pace.About comfort.About not needing a vacation from the vacation.We care about mornings that aren’t rushed, meals that turn into conversations, and plans that leave room to change your mind. We’ve learned that ease is not extra. It’s the point.That’s the lens we’re carrying forward—choosing experiences that feel good in the body, calm in the spirit, and memorable for the right reasons.If you care about that too, stay close.Follow @blackonarrival and come along with us. by @therandiverse

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6 months ago

We built something special once. Then we let time do what time does.These photos are from 2016 (when boomerangs and peace signs reigned supreme 🙃 lol). We had big ideas, good instincts, and absolutely no idea how much work was ahead of us.Some ideas don’t disappear. They just wait until you’re ready to hold them differently.We’ll just leave this right here. - Alishia + Randi by @therandiverse

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6 months ago

38 and still don’t know how to act.Cheers to more life and more silliness.#418 by @therandiverse

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a year ago