How Travel Became a Part of Who I Am

Somewhere in my forties, travel stopped being a “someday” dream and started feeling essential. Time feels precious, and I’ve learned to be intentional with it. For me, travel is a priority I choose deliberately.

This didn't start recently. My love for traveling has been unfolding for most of my life.

I'm in the middle with the blue shirt.

It began when I moved to Moscow, Russia my senior year of high school because my dad worked at the US Embassy in Moscow, and suddenly the world felt much bigger that I had ever imagined. That year I traveled to London for a university fair, to the Hague for the Model United Nations, and to Portugal and Egypt on family trips. I explored Russia and experineced life outside of the United States for the first time. Once I saw the world through a wider lens, I was hooked.

Just a few years later, my husband, Ben, and I got married. We were young without much money. Our first trip together was to Las Vegas. I found what I thought was a "great deal" on a hotel, only to realize once we arrived that it was...not great. It was a little gross, but it was all we could afford at the time. Still, we were traveling together, and that mattered to me.

Around that same time my husband was applying for jobs, and I found a position for him at the State Department that would allow us to live and work around the world. He applied, and six months later he was offered the job. We pack up our three-month-old baby and moved to Washington, D.C., beginning a career that shaped our lives in ways we couldn't have imagined.

Our first assignment was to New York, and whenever my husband traveled for work, we tried to go with him. We spent time in the city, we took trips to Chicago and Philadelphia, and learned how to weave travel into the edges of everyday life.

Then came our first international assignment. We moved to Tijuana, Mexico where we lived for two years. After that we moved to Sri Lanka. Living in a country rather than just visiting in transformative. Creating a life in a new place -learning the culture, the routines, the ordinary moments- expands you in ways that short trips could never replicate.

After Sri Lanka we moved back to the United States, and life shifted again. My days were filled caring for kids, grocery shopping, volunteering at school, and managing the logistics of family life. Travel to a back seat, at least the way I once knew it.

That's when we discovered cruising. Cruises allowed us to travel as a family without the stress of planning, and we took several together. We moved again and again before finally landing in Virginia. My dream of living overseas again, put on hold as the kids got older and did not want to move again. They wanted to stay put for high school, so we bought a house and settled in. I went back to work, my husband traveled frequently for work, and life became very routine.

Then one day, a friend name Wendy- who organizes women's and couples trips- called me with a last minute cancellation for a trip to Costa Rica. Was I interested? I checked with work, I checked with my husband and a few weeks later I found myself on my first group trip. I was hooked.

I signed up for as many trips as I could afford and as my childcare allowed. Sometimes my husband stayed home with the kids. Sometimes my parents would fly out and help. I made it work. But eventually I realized that many women's trips didn't align with the limited leave I had or the logistics of family life.

So I started planning on my own.

My first solo trip was to New Orleans- just three days. I wandered, went on a food tour, and soaked it all in. My flight home was cancelled last minute, and I ended up having to drive home from New Orleans back to Virginia in one day to make it work. That's the thing about travel- there are always unexpected bumps along the way.

I later traveled to Vietnam on my own, hiring a guide and a driver to navigate the experience. It was incredible. Empowering. Proof that I could do it, and I could do it on my own terms.

Now here I am. My kids are older, childcare is no longer a barrier, and I travel in many ways- women's trips, solo trips, and trips with my husband. Someday I'd love to lead my own women's trips.

From a 17 year old seeing St. Basils' Cathedral for the first time to a 44 year old woman who has now visited all 7 continents, my life has been shaped by movement, curiosity, and courage. Travel brings me joy. It brings me fulfillment. It continues to make my life feel full.