Travel has always been in my blood.

As young adults, both of my parents spent extended periods of time overseas, even nurturing their long-distance relationship through handwritten letters from places like Colombia and Venezuela.

After they got married, they settled down and had me and my siblings, but kept their adventurous spirits alive and instilled that love for travel in us kids too. Over the years, we’ve traveled together to Guatemala, South America, Europe, and Canada — plus plenty of trips in our home country of the United States, including a big RV trip out west and a rim-to-rim Grand Canyon hike. I’m so grateful for these experiences and how they broadened my worldview from an early age.

Because of those trips, I leapt at the chance to spend a semester in the Middle East in college. In those four months in 2008, I climbed inside a pyramid in Egypt, slept in a Bedouin camp in Jordan, lived with a Palestinian family in the West Bank, worked at a kibbutz in Israel, got scrubbed down at a Turkish bath in Istanbul, saw countless ancient ruins, and much, MUCH more. It was the single most transformative period of my life, and cemented for me that intentional travel — where you connect with locals, learn about the history and culture, and truly engage with your surroundings — can change everything.