GirlGI | Girl Gone International Issue 9 | Page 42

How have your experiences
abroad changed you?
Traveling has expanded my mind so much, I am
so much more appreciative of all the things I have
and the way I am able to live my life and chase my
dreams. Sometimes people take the smallest things
for granted, but going abroad has made me appreciate
everything small and big. Culturally speaking, I have
been stared at, people have walked up to me asking
just to touch my skin (they had never seen a Black
person in real life), babies have cried looking at me
and people have argued that I could not be American
because I didn’t have blonde hair and blue eyes. All of
those incidents have allowed me to have a teaching
moment with people and not only expand their minds,
but mine as well. That, to me, is what life should be
all about. Learning and accepting the differences of
people

You’re a well-educated woman,
how has travel inspired your
education and vice versa?

I had my first international experience when I was an
undergrad via a study abroad program so I think it
is safe to say that college not only gave me a formal
education, it gave me the opportunity to explore a
world beyond my home state (Florida). I took that first
trip and never stopped traveling. In graduate school,
I expressed my love for international education to my
Director and was able to complete my first semester
of graduate school online while I was living in South
Korea and also did a three month fellowship in India.

What influenced you to write your
book Wanderlust: For the Young,
Broke Professional?
I was inspired to write this book because people were
genuinely interested in my life story, first as a minority
woman who traveled, then as a solo traveler and lastly
as a budget traveler. I decided to write this book to
share my story and hopefully motivate people to stop
making excuses for not traveling.