“Traveling far has a way of bringing you back to who you really are.”
Travel has been a part of my story for as long as I can remember. Maybe it’s because I started my life as a military brat. Maybe it’s from hearing my grandpa’s vivid stories of his family’s life in Poland before coming to America before WWII. Whatever the reason, I’ve always had wanderlust in my blood.
I started traveling young — family road trips, my dad Jeff opening up the giant Rand McNally map to plot our route from Missouri to Mississippi to visit grandparents. As I got older, life and work opened doors to explore further. In 2017, I visited Beijing, China. It was incredible, but I remember feeling the ache of traveling completely alone. There’s something irreplaceable about sharing a place with others — a meal in a centuries-old building, laughter on a bus ride — even if you didn’t arrive as close friends.
My aunt Yasmine had been a longtime supporter of Land & See Tours, so I’d seen glimpses of their trips for years. When a trip to Greece and Rome was announced for summer 2019, I jumped at the chance to join. These were bucket-list destinations for me. While my aunt wasn’t on that trip, I made lifelong friends — including my roommate Angela (a complete stranger at the time, but company owner Mandy has a gift for connecting people) — who almost instantly became my "travel twin". We had even packed the same hair towels!
Later, I finally got to travel with Yasmine on a Girls' Trip to Spain and Portugal. She’s been a constant in my life — from my early days as a young mom to figuring out my career path — so sharing the world with her was an unspeakable privilege. I’ll never forget being on a walking tour in Lisbon, Portugal, and just having this moment of “Hey girl, we made it.” There’s a photo of us on a rooftop terrace, the bluest sky above and the city spreading out behind us. It’s one of my most treasured pictures because it captures that exact feeling — finally traveling the world together, just as we’d talked about for a decade.
Now, over six years after my first Land & See trip, I’m signed up to take on Scotland with my husband in fall 2026. One of the things I love most about small group travel is how it evolves as you evolve. Sometimes it’s a girls’ trip where you rediscover yourself. Other times it’s a chance to reconnect with a loved one. Every time, it’s a chance to step outside the monotony of everyday life — and carving out even a week or two can change everything.
Through every trip, I’ve found this to be true: Traveling far has a way of bringing you back to who you really are. Standing in places that are centuries or millennia old is humbling — it’s a perspective you can’t get in the U.S.
My travel advice? Keep an open mind and stay flexible. Sometimes it’s a delayed flight, other times it’s an unexpected heat wave in late October. There’s a sweet spot between being prepared and overpacking. I might re-wear the same pair of jeans, but my “Mary Poppins” travel pouch is always stocked with Band-Aids, hand sanitizer, medications, and all those just-in-case items. (Lesson learned: always keep tissues with you — there’s nothing like realizing there’s no toilet paper in a bathroom where you don’t speak the language and can’t just ask your stall neighbor to pass some over!) A sense of humor goes a long way, as does keeping Google Translate handy on your phone.
Now, as a mom to a four-month-old, I’m learning that balance all over again. Our next trip will be when he’s over a year old, staying with close family. I’ll miss him, of course, but I know it will make me a more connected mother — because you can’t pour from an empty cup.
Travel has been there through every season of my life. Land & See Tours has made it possible to dig deeper into the world — through affordable monthly payments, a built-in travel community, and now, family trips. I can’t wait for the day we get to show our son the world, one adventure at a time.
