There are a zillion job choices out there. Out of all the possibilities, I’ve lately started to think about what careers might interest me, and which ones would allow me to travel (I love to travel). See, teens often wonder about what they should do when they’re old enough to work. Here are two ideas that I’d absolutely love to do…

Last year I started to play the cello. I’ve found that I love it, so… maybe I’ll be a professional cellist. But my dreams go beyond that. If I continue to play the cello and decide I want that to be my career I would want to be a traveling cellist, going from country to country with my big instrument on my back. I would want to play with local musicians and learn about regional instruments and really try to understand music in different parts of the world. I would gain a lot of international experience by doing this and would learn about how music connects to various cultures. Like in China, for example, it would be really amazing to play my cello with a zhonghu musician.

My second career idea is way different but it’s insanely cool, and involves the rainforest. Last summer I visited the jungle in an area of Peru called Tambopata. I fell in love, and I feel homesick not being there. Falling in love with a place in four days- which was how long I was there- might be a world record. While in Tambopata, I learned that 1.5 acres of rainforest/jungle disappears every minute. I was blown away by that number, and I now want to get involved in making a change.

The Tambopata River, Amazon River Basin

My friend, Tom, works for the Rainforest Foundation, which helps save the rainforest and protects the indigenous people who live there. Tom has always talked about how the rainforests are amazing. I never really understood until I visited Tambopata. Ever since I heard the statistic about how much rainforest is disappearing, I’ve wanted to do what Tom does. While it’s true that he travels into the middle of the jungle and nobody ever knows where he is (my mom is always worried about him) or when he’s coming home, this career would help me learn so much more about a different part of the world and would enable me to help the environment. This career would gain me a lot of international experience because I would learn a lot about how to live in the rainforest, and what it’s like to live there. I would also learn a lot about indigenous people living in the rainforest who have different cultures, languages, and lifestyles!

Anevay Darlington is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program

Photo courtesy and copyright Anevay Darlington