Last night I was trying to figure out if I would be able to manage a trip to someplace in Europe that I haven’t been (Croatia, for example), and it struck me, not for the first time, that I am incredibly lucky.
In my world, travel is more than just accepted. It is normal.
I have done more travelling in my 27 years than many, many people in this world will get to do in their lifetimes. I grew up with more exposure to foreign cultures than to my own (ah, the joy of being a TCK). When I was in high school in Belgium, my swim team away meets were in different countries; I have stories that start, “one time when I was in Cairo for a swim meet…”. Although I returned to my home state of California for college, I also lived in Paris for six months of my university life. I spent this past summer working for an NGO in South Africa. I am currently studying human rights law in Geneva, arguably one of the best places in the world to do so. I have friends all over the world, literally.
I know that I am very lucky to have had all of these experiences, and I wouldn’t trade my life for the world. I sincerely hope that I will continue to be able to travel this much as I grow up (and no, at 27, I am definitely not grown up).
