At fifteen, I remember sitting on the edge of a boat in Laos, in awe of all the natural beauty that surrounded me. However, when I looked down at the river, all I saw was the trash floating by. Mounds of trash were being piled up around the boat and there were even children swimming through it, women washing clothes in it, and animals drinking from it. 

A year later as I was walking on a beach in Accra, Ghana, I was shocked again by the piles of trash where sand dunes should be. Here there were children jumping on these trash piles, goats eating the trash, and people rummaging through it. Here I was again in a foreign country, in the outdoors, surrounded by beauty but all I could focus on was the trash. This is a reality for many people around the world, and some people have just accepted that this is our ‘normal’, but I don’t want to sit by and watch our climate worsen, our environment deteriorate, instead I want to take action. 

These experiences and many others like them, are what has inspired me to start to live a more sustainable and mindful lifestyle. However, my passion for traveling will never end, so here I am, combining my two passions and teaching others how to do so as well!