and ways of doing things.
Dealing with the many hardships you
experience when travelling also gives you a
lot of grit, while home-schooling enabled
me to learn to work on my own, manage my
tasks and time and hold myself accountable.
This really set me up for university and life
as a freelancer working from home.
Do I recommend it? Let’s just say my
dream is to one day get a kitted-out old
land cruiser and do an overland trip through
Africa with my husband and future kids.
[Ed: Wonder began doodling during her
childhood travels and is now a full-time
illustrator whose work has been published
locally and internationally. Follow her on
Instagram @wondermeyer]
Scenes from Wonder Meyer’s round-the
-world odyssey, clockwise from above:
“Camping our way across Australia in our
red Ford Falcon – she was a very wide car
so we named her Fat Girl. Learning to play
the rindik, a traditional Balinese bamboo
xylophone, with a friendly stranger.
Tobogganing in Austria with my mom.
Outside a traditional house in French
Polynesia. Mom and I aboard Siyabonga,
somewhere in the Pacific. Camping in
Hawaii – the surfboards were made by
my dad. Perched on the front of dad’s
surfboard at Waikiki, Honolulu.”
schoolwork for when we were on land. We
practiced times tables on the boat and I
would read constantly, then catch up on
schoolwork on land.
We loved Rarotonga [in the Cook Islands],
and I went to the local school there for
a month – it was the most interesting
experience. The school “bell” was a
traditional slit-gong drum, and we spent
break times on the beach looking for firefish
in the rock pools – and traditional hula
dancing was an actual class.
When you’re young and learning about
how the world works, your experiences
are limited to routine daily interactions
and what you see the people around you
doing. You quickly make up your mind
Travelling blows open
narrow-mindedness,
as you are exposed to so many
fantastically different and
wonderful people, cultures,
beliefs & ways of doing things
about what is “normal” and judge anything
that is not, or tease people who look or
seem “other”. Travelling blows open this
narrow-mindedness, as you are exposed
to so many fantastically different and
wonderful people, foods, cultures, beliefs
THE EXPERIMENTAL LEARNER:
INDYGO WINSHIP | I’m an only child with a
single mom, and I’ve always felt my life was
adventurous – like I ruled the world. When
my mom turned 50 she decided it was time
to make her dreams come true and took
an “adult gap year”. We sold our house and
most of our possessions and told school we
were leaving…
We went to America, Canada, Peru, Chile,
Argentina, Ecuador, Thailand, Malaysia,
Vietnam and Cambodia, plus detours to
Easter Island and the Galápagos Islands. We
went deep into the Amazon and caught
a piranha, attended Spanish school in
South America, hiked glaciers in Patagonia,
practiced Thai Chi in Malaysia, learnt
jewellery making in Vietnam and cooking
in Cambodia. We shopped in markets
for ingredients to cook for dinner and
experimented with all sorts of foods.
My most memorable experiences are
learning to snorkel in the Galapagos,
hang-gliding off the cliffs of Lima, sitting
and chatting with people in a laundromat in
New York City, and our five-day road trip to
Thunder Bay in Canada.
I did no schoolwork. We went to every
single natural history, art, science and other
museum we could find. I tasted, touched
and experienced everything, rather than
learning about it in a book.
It didn’t set me back at all. I was 9 when
we left and I came back more confident,
with many more skills. I learned to
communicate with different people, even
when the language was a challenge. I have
experienced many of the Seven Wonders –
and I feel safe in the world.
MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE // 57