Advisory Committee Chair
Kerry Madden Lunsford
Advisory Committee Members
Kyle Grimes
Christopher Minnix
Adam Vines
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
2020
Degree Name by School
Master of Arts (MA) College of Arts and Sciences
Abstract
My love of travel started from a young age. My family and I would drive to New Mexico every summer to see extended family. I remember the eager anticipation of packing bags and grabbing my notebook for the long journey, playing the ABC game on the road, listening to my favorite CDs on repeat on my portable CD player, fighting with my older brother about which of us gets to stretch our legs in the backseat and for how long. But we never really went anywhere besides that annual trip to New Mexico and the occasional Panama City Beach weekend road trip. I knew I wanted more. It was when I was in college that I realized I could journey out to wherever I wanted, all by myself. I sought out to save my money to visit my best friend who lived in Brazil. I saved for years, while also traveling wherever my budget would take me along the way. I worked in a food truck in New York City across from the Museum of Natural History for an hour in exchange for a phone charger. I fell in love in Athens on a six week tour of Europe. I re-learned how to ride a bicycle on the bustling streets of a city in the Netherlands. I did most of this alone, but have memories that have taught me a valuable life lesson. The only way to grow as a person is to seek out other people’s stories and cultures, to expand yourself further than what you call home. To call the world your home. Only then can you see the world as it truly is.
Recommended Citation
Torres, Alayziah Diana, "The Journey Journals" (2020). All ETDs from UAB. 3157.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/3157