Inspiration

I haven't posted anything since my amazing trip to Seattle, but I was thinking the other day while watching the travel channel where my love of travel came from. Growing up as a child my parents took us on family vacations quite often. We used to go to Disneyland every summer as I was growing up, or it just seems that frequent in my memories of my childhood. I can recall a trip to Mexico we took with a bunch of neighbors, I think I connect this trip mostly with my eldest brother threatening to tie me to the luggage rack of our 89 GMC suburban, I was 4 or 5 back then and I just roamed the car, no rules of car seats for toddlers in the early 90's. I remember a family trip to the Grand Canyon where my brother who is just above me in the age line up threatened to push me in I believe I was only 7 and terrified of the Grand Canyon right up until I went for the second time in my life a few years ago. I can remember a trip to Utah to visit my sister at BYU, numerous trips to Flagstaff to see every home football game of my brother's for 4 years straight, this is the reason I fell deeply in love with Flagstaff and have always wanted to live there for a short period of time. Other exciting family vacations included Disney world when I was in the 7th grade, Washington D.C. in the 8th grade, and more recent ones have been San Diego a few times, Las Vegas, Disneyland of course, even as adults my whole family still loves Disneyland, and New York City with my sisters and mom! So as you can see I have been traveling my whole life but I never really became infatuated with it until I saw this woman on this network....

Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel

I just happened to come across a show called Passport to Europe and have watched every single episode since. This woman inspired me to study abroad and truly experience another country and what it has to offer! Before I even saw this show I had been to Canada, Mexico and Germany already. I didn't really appreciate this fact until I saw her show and her excitement for each new adventure she went on! I decided I am going back to Europe to truly appreciate it, I decided about a year and half before I actually did study abroad that I was going too! At that time I narrowed my choices down to France, Italy, and Australia. France because I took 3 years of french in high school, Italy because I had learned so much about its ancient architecture from interior design school, and Australia because of my aunt who is a native of there and I just adore her. Italy ultimately won out in the end as you know and I have this TV woman to thank for getting me excited about traveling! She also has passport to Latin America which I have also seen every episode of, and Passport to Great Weekends, which is traveling within the United States and Canada, and more recent Passport to Asia! They are all truly amazing! There are so many amazing places to see in this world it's so incredible! Thanks Samantha Brown for being my inspiration to travel!