I don’t know about you, but growing up, I was definitely not confident.

Most of my insecurities stemmed from the fact that I was deemed “gifted” in grade 2 and taken out of class for one day every two weeks for enrichment activities. Since I was only 7 at the time, no one, including myself and my teachers, hid this from the other kids and, for a couple years, I didn’t see any need to. I was still a normal student, only I got to do harder schoolwork.

Then grade 5 rolled around and my teacher basically created an entirely separate curriculum for me, segregating me from all my classmates. And that’s when the bullying started. I’ll spare you the story, but basically my friends abandoned me, calling me a “freak.” I know now that this was only out of jealousy, but up until recently, it hurt. As a result of this, until grade 10 I was content to be quiet, simply finishing my work and not really getting involved for fear of ridicule. I even pulled out of the gifted program for a while in an attempt to fit in.

And then in grade 10, something happened. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment or reason, but I decided to get involved. I joined our student council’s cabinet and attended a 4-day leadership conference and slowly but surely began building my confidence. I made friends within student council and leadership groups who were like me; smart, motivated and, honestly, a little bit weird. Read More »

My on-the-road anxieties have been eased by this one important mantra. Call it zen, call it what you will, but there is something utterly freeing about the reality that life is sometimes beyond your control and that you just have to let things go.

An illustration: Back in December, I was on a plane from Bogotá to Quito. A very short distance certainly, but it was the longest journey from point A to point B I’ve ever endured.

In the end, it took me twenty four hours to fly the short 450 mile distance between the two cities. I grew a gray hair of worry that I wouldn’t be able to catch my connecting flight back to Los Angeles, but I certainly learned a great lesson that I now apply to all the impatient moments in my travel career. Read More »