In the Beginning...
The last Friday of August, 2014 I was making my daily 45 minute commute to work daydreaming about life as I tend to do, and listening to the radio. There was a story about somebody who had traveled quite a bit and I started thinking about everywhere I had been and yet all those places that I know nothing about. Considering I have been to almost one country for every year of my life, I would say I am pretty fortunate. I have seen and experienced things that many people won't have the chance to...some may say they never want to. But while I feel I am lucky to have these experiences, I am not alone in saying that traveling gets into your blood. The more you travel, the more you want to travel.
So as I was sitting there driving to a not so exciting desk job, and I started to wonder how many people have actually been to every country in the world and how amazing it would be to be on that list. Of course, in order to do that, unless you are independently wealthy, you need some sort of funding and a purpose for the funding. My mind went in a variety of directions, thinking about who in the world would sponsor such an endeavor and how one would go about it.
For weeks after, I couldn't get this idea out of my mind. But talking to friends and family, it hit me that a large percentage of people have very little knowledge of foreign worlds.
I began to wonder, what do I like about traveling?? It isn't staying in ritzy hotels and being catered to...it is about meeting the locals and stepping into their worlds. My favorite and most memorable experiences are getting to know my guides on a personal level, or staying with local families who have taught me so much over the years. Every life, every country is completely different and I want to share that. And truthfully, what better time to start a crazy project like this than when you need a career change and you have no roots to tie you down. It is going to be an unbelievable amount of work, but nobody is going to blame me for not trying.