Arlington Cemetery’s long been a special place for me and my family, so laying wreaths there this weekend was bittersweet. So many stories in this one photo! So many stories.
During a recent talk at a study abroad conference, I reminded a group of college students just how lucky we are. Travel has a way of hammering that point home, of reminding us that we’re so fortunate to have food on the table, shoes on our feet and opportunity in front of us. Most people […]
When I mentioned to an acquaintance recently that my next goal is to figure out how to travel while working, she said something like, “Well, that should be easy. You can work wherever you want.” Which is technically true — I can work wherever I want. And I do take advantage of that, moving between […]
This weekend I’m speaking at the New England Study Abroad ReEntry Conference, offering tips for avoiding the mistakes I’ve made words of wisdom to a group of students who just returned from studying abroad. I’m planning to talk about how travel gives us perspective, and how each one of us can harness that perspective to […]
Wow. Big day here! Today I’m launching How to Take a Career Break to Travel, a step-by-step guide to making your dream trip happen. This has been a long time coming. I left on my own Big Trip in June 2008 — which is when I started this blog — and backpacked solo through seven […]
I’m in Nicaragua. I’m so NOT in Nicaragua. I’d bought a ticket to fly there two days after my last day at work, with little plans other than than to find a zipline and get away from my computer. But as I was stuffing clothes into my pack the day before I was supposed to […]
When I left my reporting job in 2008 to travel in Africa, I had no idea there was a career-break movement. In fact, I didn’t even call what I was doing a career break. I wanted to take a long-haul backpacking trip, and quitting my job was the only way I could see to make […]
Do you dream of taking a career break to travel? If so, what stops you? What obstacles do you face? What’s the most daunting part about making it happen? And what information could I provide that would help? I ask for two reasons: I’m working on my own project about how to take a career […]
Saving money is one of the best ways to prepare to take a leap in life, whether your leap is taking a career break to travel, writing a book, starting your own business or something else you’ve yearned to accomplish. Setting yourself up financially not only puts you in a position to afford to make […]
On Monday night while I was waiting for the Metro, tired and cranky after a long day, a dark-haired women approached me. She towed three children, a grandmother and a clunky suitcase. “Vienna?” she asked, pointing at the tracks. I tried to explain that this train didn’t go to Vienna (that’s Vienna, Virginia, not the […]