I didn’t get my first passport until I was 42. For much of my 20s and 30s, travel simply wasn’t within reach. I was a single parent living below the poverty line, even after graduating from college and working full time, and exploring the world was something I dreamed about but never quite believed I could actually do.
That changed in 2015. After accepting a promotion at Purdue University, I was given the opportunity to travel to China for work — my first trip abroad. I still remember how it felt to step off the plane into a place so different from anything I knew. That single journey changed the direction of my life. I had officially been bitten by the travel bug.
Over the years that followed, I returned to China once or twice a year, and whenever I could I added personal travel onto those work trips: new destinations, new cultures, new foods, and new ways of seeing the world. Each trip taught me a little more about how to move through an unfamiliar place with curiosity instead of fear.
What began as one professional trip slowly became a much bigger dream — not just to see the world myself, but to help other people believe they could see it too. I started organizing group experiences, learning how to handle the details that make travel feel effortless, and discovering that I loved creating those experiences even more than I loved taking the trips.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: don’t wait for someday. There may never be a perfect time, and there may never be a perfect travel companion. Life is happening right now, and the places you dream of seeing are still out there, still waiting for you to arrive.
Meaningful travel doesn’t have to mean luxury travel, and it doesn’t have to mean roughing it either. It lives in the thoughtful space in between — comfortable, intentional, and genuinely yours. Whenever you’re ready to stop postponing, I’d love to help you plan the trip you keep telling yourself you’ll take one day.
Leave a Reply