Life of Leaving Home

“I am awake and alive,

There is something calling me

More than a moment in time

It’s a dream I’m following

On my own

On my own

More than a moment in time

It’s the life of leaving home”

-          “Life of Leaving Home” by Yellowcard

In June of 2008, I left North America for the first time. I traveled with a group of students from my high school, and we visited Paris, Switzerland, and southern Germany. My mom thought that maybe when I came back, I would be satisfied. She thought I would step off the plane and say “Wow, that was great! I saw a new part of the world, so now I’m ready to stay home for a while.”

The pink sunrise reflecting off a mountain out-
side Engelberg, Switzerland. At one point, I asked
my German teacher, who was chaperoning the trip,
to tell my mother I had died so that I could run
away and spend the rest of my life in the Alps.

Not so, my friends, not so. In fact, my post-travel reaction was the exact opposite. I stepped off the plane and told my mom “Wow, that was great! Now I want to see the rest of the world!”

The slogan for our travel company during that first trip, ACIS, was “Travel changes lives.” I saw that

sentence everywhere – on flyers, on posters, always in bright green letters. I had no idea how true that statement would prove to be for me. You see, I remember in particular one morning atop Mt. Titlis in Switzerland. My two friends and I met another group of three girls around our age, and they asked us to guess where they were from. We were completely off – we guessed England; they were from South Africa. We returned the challenge, and the girls had no idea. “Michigan,” we told them, “In America.” The one girl waved her hand futilely and proclaimed “Oh, I’m no good at geography. I just know America is somewhere up there.”

This sounds like a simple anecdote, but that moment, I realized something profound: the majority of people in the world have a sense of reality completely different from mine. They have their own unique set of experiences, and I can learn a lot from listening to their stories. 

My 2008 self, bright-eyed and in love with the world.

I think that’s why I’m so hooked on travel. When I arrive in a new country, my objective is to see the world from the perspective of those living there. I absolutely love seeing the world through new eyes in this way, learning to put myself in someone else’s position. Whenever I encounter a new culture, I try to immerse myself in it and learn from the inside.

I am extremely fortunate to have chosen a career path that allows me to travel as in integral part of my work. I am a deep-sea marine biologist, so I’m constantly going to conferences, on research expeditions, and communicating with colleagues in remote corners of the world. In my honest opinion, I have the perfect life, and I’m glad to share it with you now.

It started in 2008, and I doubt it will ever end. This is my life of leaving home.