My journey to 50 countries by age 25

Reflecting on the impact travel has imprinted upon my life thus far

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” - Anthony Bourdain

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The road to 50 countries has been a decade-long adventure, one complete with unconventional decisions that I do not for one second regret (like deciding to go backpack across Europe & Asia for 6 months after only working for a year).

As a young child, I’d always been fascinated by the world, spending countless hours spinning my little pointer finger on the big ole’ globe next to our family’s desktop computer and googling whatever country I’d landed upon, eager to absorb as much information as I possibly could about the seemingly far away lands that existed beyond the depth of what was visible from suburban Chicagoland.

Finally, when I was 13 years old, I (somehow) convinced my parents to let me fly to St. Martin & live on a sailboat for 3 weeks with 10 kids from all over the world (with chaperones, of course!).

In order to garner their permission to embark on this adventure, I spent days putting together a comprehensive slide deck covering all of the benefits & potential risks, along with my mitigation strategy. As you can see, passionate persuasiveness has always been a strong suit of mine. ;)

My parents’ friends couldn’t fathom how they’d allow their 13 year old daughter to do such a thing. I mean, what a bada** parenting decision, am I right?!

We studied marine biology, got our scuba diving & sailing certifications, and visited local communities throughout the Caribbean. For the first time in my life, I saw cultures & people & foods & beliefs & ways of life so different than my own, yet so beautiful. I met kids from 8 different countries & learned about what daily life was like for them in a way that no textbook could adequately portray.

I decided then that I'd make it my goal to visit 50 countries by the time I was 25.

People thought this was crazy. Most told me it would not be possible. I was often asked why I’d want to do such a wild thing.

Nevertheless, I persisted. And today, I find myself abundantly grateful that I remained committed to doing the thing 13-year-old me set out to make possible.

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It's difficult to put into words the impact traveling has had on my life thus far.

If I could pick just one thing I've learned over these years to share (there are countless), it'd be this: there is no one "right" way to do this life, and most people are pretty gosh darn good at their core.

We are so often made to believe we're too different to be able to recognize our common humanity, but what I've come to find in my travels is that we are far more similar than the narrative we're so often tempted to believe, one that keeps us divided. Experiencing so much of the world has grown my empathy, compassion, and recognition that my "norm" doesn't necessarily have to be someone else's, that I should question & further investigate, and to see things from multiple perspectives, always.

Traveling—meeting with people from all over the world—has humanized this place in a way no other experience could possibly do for me. Being face-to-face with people from all different places, backgrounds, ethnic groups, religions, family systems, beliefs, and birthplaces has grown an overflowing amount of deep compassion within me that I don’t know if I’ll ever be express through words.

When you travel, when you meaningfully engage with people from every nook & cranny of this planet, you can’t see them as anything other than human beings with lives & hearts & souls & dreams & fears, many of which are similar to yours.

When you see their humanity, it’s impossible to not care deeply for their well-being, whether or not they look or speak or believe similarly to you.

When you meet a woman forced into prostitution on the side of the road in Cambodia, when you meet a young Iraqi man who lost his entire family in the early 2000s en route to Doha, when you share a meal with a family in rural Fiji, when you discuss cultural differences over a glass of wine with a French friend, when you explore the markets of Morocco with local guides, when you get sick & are taken care of by doctors in India, you realize that our differences—our cultures & appearances & foods & traditions & religions—are all just unique expressions of the humanity we share. And amidst these differences, you see that we’re all just trying to make sense of life— to soak up the joy, to navigate the grief, to feed our families, to have shelter over our heads at night, to find meaning in our everyday.

We’re all in it together. Let us never forget this.❤️

If you are able, go travel! See the world! Go visit parts of your community you've never been to before! Expose yourself to the uncomfortable; get to know people from different places & cultures & belief systems. The act of getting to know all kinds of people has an incredible way of helping us recognize the common humanity we share—something that I believe is ever increasingly important.

Always,

Elle