By Sara Gunn
Sara Gunn sits in Webster’s university center,
where flags hang representing the home
countries of our Webster students.
My room is my travelogue. The photos on the walls are from exotic places: museums in Austria, beaches in the Netherlands, ancient ruins in Cambodia and baskets of hot chili peppers in Thailand.
The trinkets on the shelves include candles from Spain, a hat from Ireland, postcards from Italy and keepsakes from Guatemala.
I look at these treasures and think. At 15 I did not know a world outside of St. Louis. Then, my parents won a trip to Scotland and brought my twin sister and me along. We added trips to France and England. Exploring three countries as a teenager widened my perspectives on what the world had to offer. My love of international travel had begun.
As an undergrad at Webster University I was given the opportunity to live abroad. This time, it was a bigger risk. I had never lived outside of St. Louis or traveled on my own. It was not easy to leave home and live in Vienna for four months. However, I knew that by taking advantage of the study abroad opportunities offered by Webster, I would grow independently and learn about myself.
While studying in Austria, I lived in the moment and visited other countries on the weekends. My twin sister and I studied abroad in Thailand the following semester, and I learned to value experiences and people. I fell in love with culture and communication, even more so after completing summer internships in Ghana and Guatemala.
At 23 I moved to the Netherlands for graduate school and realized I had been to 18 countries. That was the moment I set my goal to see 25 countries before the end of my 25th year. November 4th is my 26th birthday and I am grateful to have seen 24 countries: Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Laos, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand and the United States. This summer I hope to visit my number 25, the beautiful land of Turkey.
Read more about Sara’s travels at www.webster.edu/notabene2012.
