Backpacking:
Exchanging Old Comfort Zones
for New Time Zones

Upon completion of my Fulbright Fellowship in Ivory Coast, I still had a good portion of my grant left (perks of living so immersively!). After paying off a small student loan, I decided to fulfill a childhood dream and go travel the world.

Over a period of 18 months, I solo backpacked through 27 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America, enjoying adventures ranging from summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro to sleeping in a tree house in the jungles of Laos. To date, I have traveled to 45 countries around the world, or just over 23% of the world’s total nations.

People often describe this period of my life as “time off” or a “gap year” - comically inadequate terms for such an intense period of awe and development. My time on the road became a masters course in resourcefulness, adaptability, negotiation skills, logistical coordination, relationship building, inter-cultural communications, and self sufficiency.

As I see it, one cannot understand the competitive and unique constellation of attributes I bring to my pursuits without including my experiences backpacking.

I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who learned more about hustling by working in a cubicle than I did by backpacking the world.

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Aruba | Australia | Austria | Bahamas | Belgium | Cambodia | Canada | Colombia | Croatia | Czech Republic | Dominican Republic | England | France | Germany | Greece | Grenada | Guatemala | Hungary | Indonesia | Ireland | Italy | Jamaica | Laos | Malaysia | Malta | Mexico | Morocco | Myanmar | Netherlands | Philippines | Portugal | Scotland | Senegal | Singapore | Slovenia | Spain | St. Kitts & Nevis | Switzerland | Taiwan | Tanzania | Thailand | USA | Vatican | Vietnam