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ABOUT ME
Hi! I'm Danielle Deodath. I'm 25 years old from Queens, NY and I. Love. Airports. If I'd done any soul-searching before I chose my major in college, I might've been a pilot today. However, I chose to major in legal studies (with minors in Spanish and psychology!) and became a paralegal in order to finance my flights.
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I am a dog mom to my two fur babies: Quinn, an almost-3-year-old Lab-Collie mix, and Stella, a 2-year-old Golden Retriever. When I'm not talking about where I want to go next, I'm pretty much guaranteed to be gushing about how I have the greatest and cutest dogs on the planet.
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Beyond that, I am an Aperol Spritz connoisseur, cappuccino junkie, wannabe recording artist, pig enthusiast, and space nerd.
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As you'll read down below, my husband is an active duty Marine, which means we pick up and move a lot. Although I am [loudly] a New Yawker at heart, I am currently in State College, PA, which makes traveling an ordeal. Throughout my moves, I'll list a rundown below of what my closest airport is, and what airport I tend to fly out of. Here's where I'm at currently:
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Closest Airport: University Park Airport (SCE)
Closest Int'l Airport: Harrisburg International Airport (MDT)
Most Frequented Airport: John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
THE BACK STORY
TGPS was created to be the digital version of a physical binder I created in 2020 called "The Book of Adventures." My beloved Book is filled with handwritten daily accounts of my travels as well as photos, receipts, and other souvenirs I've collected along the way. Across my travels, I've had friends and family reach out to ask for opinions on destinations, places to eat, points of interest, etc., and I found that the Book had all the information they were looking for, I just wasn't able to share it with those who weren't physically present. I decided that a blog would be the perfect space to share my experiences and opinions with those I love, as well as those who share in my passion for travel.
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As for the name, The Great Pink Suitcase: I met my fiance, Jarren, in the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, not too long after I'd started traveling on my own. The pandemic, of course, seized all chances to fulfill my wanderlust and left me painfully tethered to New York for longer than I'd hoped. Throughout our early relationship, I'd constantly try to find small getaways for us to satiate my hunger to travel, packing my stuff in a small purple carry-on my parents had gifted to me two Christmases earlier. I'd used this carry-on as my travel companion for two years, as I was avoiding paying the outrageous prices that airlines charge for checked luggage. It didn't matter how much needed to be packed, I was making it fit in there one way or another.
As time grew on, the restrictions began to lift, and as Christmas approached I knew exactly what I wanted: checked luggage. My reasoning? Two things: I was willing a new era of constant travel into my life after being away from it for so long, and because Jarren is active duty in the Marine Corps, everywhere we traveled, my gigantic suitcase would be checked for free. I'd never have to intensely roll my clothing into the world's smallest suitcase ever again. That Christmas, I asked him for the cheapest hardside checked luggage he could find. Nothing fancy, just a big ole suitcase. What I got on Christmas morning was a huge pastel pink suitcase, a color he had searched and paid extra for because it's my favorite. Ever since then, we've taken the majority of our trips with it, and so the name was born.