I’m a grade 10 student taking a year off to travel abroad with my family, and I’m interested in hearing about someone with lots of international experience so I decided to ask several people I know that have wanderlust and travel.

The first person I asked is a friend of mine that lives in Australia named Maddy.  She is 15, as well, so I thought it would be cool to hear someone's opinion that is my age. I asked her what it’s like living in Australia and to tell me a bit about it. Maddy said she really loves living in Australia. Surfing is always a fun pastime in Australia. The people are really friendly and the beaches are so good, especially on the gold coast! Things are a lot more expensive in Australia than America, like makeup, clothes, and food, but living in Australia is great and it’s definitely a good place to visit.

The next person I talked to about international experience is a close family friend of mine named Joe. I asked him what he likes best about traveling. He told me that he likes living like a local. Joe prefers it way more than staying at hotels. When he travels, he wants to become part of the society, to experience the different cultures in the areas, to get to know the shops, the people, the different types of food people eat, the great beaches, and the activities that locals do. It can change your life by traveling to different places when you’re young because you will be so experienced, and when you are older you will want to keep traveling. 

Since I’m taking this year off with my parents to travel I really wanted to know why they wanted to do this. So I asked them why did they decided to travel, because they traveled a lot when they first got married, and every year since they had me and my little sister.

Becca and her sister, Washington, D.C.

My parents said they had been planning this trip since before I was born. They have always loved traveling. They didn’t want to stay in one spot; they wanted to travel the world and expand their horizons, and wanted to teach abroad overseas before they had kids but they decided that it would be a good experience to travel with their kids so they waited till I was 15 so that I can really experience different cultures with them. My parents have always had this rough idea of what they wanted to do and traveling all around the world was something they were always interested in. We will be visiting Hawaii, France, Italy, Spain, and we have already been to Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Washington, and Florida. So when I get back from this trip, I will have experienced many different cultures outside of Canada, learning how people live, and make friendships - so that if I ever want to visit those places when I’m older, I will have friends there that I made when I was 15.

Cape Cod sunset

Travel as part of a Career...

I have been traveling from a very young age, so having a career where I would be able to travel over the world and be doing a job I love would be so much fun. I researched and talked to somebody I know about teaching English in a different country. I think that would be a great international experience because you get to do a job that you love, and you get to experience what it’s like to live abroad. My aunt went to teach English in Italy for all of her twenties. She really loved the experience of living in Italy and the culture there, but also because she was doing a job she was good at and enjoyed. I think this would be a great international experience because you can really become a part of the community and Italian culture, and live like a local, not a tourist. It’s such a cool experience being able to teach overseas in place of your choice; it would be such a fun adventure. Coming back home after this experience you would be full of knowledge of the different cultures and much more experienced as an English ESL teacher. Living abroad will also make you realize how much you appreciate home.

Becca Tran is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program

All photos courtesy and copyright Becca Tran