Why do you travel? Is it for the beautiful beaches and relaxtion? For delicious food and different cultures? Or maybe you like to explore the roads less traveled?

My favorite thing about travel is the change that happens within yourself after visiting a new place. It's transforming to see how others live and to understand how vast (and small) this world really is. It's good to step outside of your comfort zone and let yourself get a little lost every now and then. And it's funny to see how your own city looks different every time you return home from a trip, it has stayed the same, but you have changed.

I've just recieved my new passport in the mail, right before my first trip back home to the states since moving to France. I'm excited for all of the travels to come, and nostalgic for all of the memories I had in my previous passport. Looking at the stamps in my old passport, my collection of countries aka. my collection of life-morphing experiences, made me think back to all of the magnificent travels I had! I suppose, in a way, a passport is like a storybook - a gathering of adventures all in one place!

In it is a story of discovery - my first stamp was for a mission trip to Jamaica, where we built shelters at orphanages and climbed waterfalls.

A story of independence - my Italian visa from when I studied abroad - which was the first time this Indiana girl traveled abroad alone, forged everlasting memories and developed a love for europe.