I have so many travelling friends, and I have been wondering if it is just a coincidence or if travellers are bonded together through wanderlust. Recently, my friend Molly was telling me about an adventure she was about to embark on with her family, a four-day trek around Lake Waikaremoana, which is one of New Zealand's Great Walks. I decided to interview her, and find out how travelling has changed her life.

Like myself, Molly is an expat to New Zealand.

“I moved from Ireland when I was seven...”

When her family moved to New Zealand, they decided to 'have an adventure along the way' and so, instead of flying directly to New Zealand, they stayed for two months in both Australia and Thailand. I asked Molly how these travels changed her.

"It's made me see how differently people live from me, and how cultures in other countries are so different from my own. But it's also made me realise that no matter where we go, there are always nice people, and it is so easy to make friends with someone who lives so differently from myself."

International experiences can change people's lives, as Molly, myself, and countless other travelling teens have discovered. When we go around the world, or even to a neighbouring country, we realize that the language barrier is never really a problem when people have similar interests.

Molly also told me that travelling has helped her see "how beautiful the world is, and how lucky I am."

I asked her what was her favourite part of travelling.

"I found the best part of travelling was the build up of going there, and the excitement on the plane. Then you're there and there's all new smells and everything is so different."

When I asked how travelling had helped her adapt to being an expat, she laughed and told me it “made for some good stories.”  She quickly dived into an experience from when she was in Thailand, chuckling at the memory that had been quite scary at the time.

“My dad and I, and my little sister, (who was five at the time), were paddling down a river in Thailand, and dad pointed out something in the water. Then my sister and I started screaming because we thought it was a huge snake, and we jumped up on a rock and cuddling cuddled dad. It was really scary because the snake was coming towards us, and then after about five minutes of screaming at it, we confirmed it was just a stick.”

Sadly, not all her memories were quite as fun.

“...Little kids begging at a tourist attraction, saying, ‘I’ll give you these biscuits for some money’...”

Molly has become aware of poverty in other countries, and she already has decided that she wants to join a charity organization to help kids in Thailand when she grows up.  She hates seeing other people suffer, and she wants to be able to help the world. I decided to do some research on charity as a job, and I wrote about what I found here.

Molly knows now that travelling is in her blood, and will become an important part of her in later life. Travelling has opened her eyes and she now sees the world from a more aware perspective. Molly has also found that travelling is exciting and fun, and, if you let it, can take you anywhere.

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."
-J.R.R Tolkien

Sarah Albom is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program

All photos courtesy of Molly.