Not until my mid-20’s did it occur to me that the world was something worth exploring. I'd grown up comfortable in a Midwest city, and that comfort had a way of making the familiar feel like enough.

So when I was cast on a television show filming across Europe, Central America, and South America, I didn't react the way you might expect. Around me, my castmates were losing their minds with excitement. I stood there, unmoved. What I didn't realize yet was that the blankness I felt wasn't indifference…it was fear of the unknown, of places where I didn't speak the language or understand the customs, of feeling perpetually out of place with no script for how to find my footing.

Little did I know what an unforgettable time I’d have…as my mind expanded in what seemed like an instant.  

I fell in love with cities I had never heard of, cities that I thought only existed in fairy tales. 

I saw the Milky Way galaxy in all its glory from a remote South American desert.  The immense awe and wonder I felt upon seeing what appeared to be a million diamonds glistening in the night sky brought me to tears.  I ate delicious food I couldn't pronounce and befriended people who I could only communicate with via broken language and non-verbal cues.  I got lost on foot on several occasions — one night in the Old Town section of Edinburgh. There I stumbled upon the most beautiful buildings I’d ever seen just as the season’s first snow broke from the heavens above.  I vividly recall stretching out my arms and lifting my face to the midnight sky under the orange glow of a lonely lamppost.  

These photographs are my homage to everything travel has given me. But the most priceless things it gave me can’t be captured in an image. It’s my hope that you take it from me…

Book the trip. The more foreign, the better. Get lost. Let the world expand you. Not for other people. Not for the gram. But to find the edges of who you are and what you can do.