Open Letter to the Global Degree girls & every other travel dreamer:

I want to get this message out before the contest ends. Before it seems as if this were about winners and losers. This open letter goes out to the girls who ‘always wished they could’. It goes out to the excellent applicants who are well traveled, versed in marketing and social media, girls who have the potential to inspire others. But more importantly, it goes out to the girls who have never left their hometown. The women who look at the world as something beyond their reach, who took a leap at the chance to join hands with others who are already in pursuit. To follow Global Degree on an amazing journey 193 nations strong.

You ladies took the first step already. You took a risk. You put yourselves out there. You probably haven’t stopped thinking about the possibilities since then. Whether traveling around the world has been a lifelong endeavour or a recent inspiration, I want to encourage you to follow through.

Travel will teach you more about the world and about yourself than any book, any show, any school or any one person ever could. I’m talking about lessons beyond the history, culture or state of a particular place. I can speak to my own transformation as a girl who learned to believe that I could do ANYTHING!