By all accounts, I am a traveler. I have lived in 5 US states, visited 32 others and have traveled to more than 30 countries across 4 continents. I have seen the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, and the Forbidden City. But I did not always travel and I didn’t always know that I would be so compelled to do so. I grew up in a small, midwestern community in North Dakota, one that did not often look to the outside world. That worldview dominated my childhood and, as a result, I did not seek out the opportunities that lived beyond the horizon.
That all changed when I joined the military and was sent to Georgia for basic training. That one plane ride and subsequent experiences convinced me that the world was so much more diverse and exciting than I’d experienced in my quiet little town. Fast forward more than a decade and I seek out opportunities whenever possible. This story isn’t about my first trip, though; it is about one of the most personally fulfilling trips I have taken.
I went to college in Los Angeles and graduated in 2008. By the time I graduated, I knew that Los Angeles was not going to be my postcollege home. I enjoyed living in LA, but I didn’t love it; instead I had set my sights elsewhere. Packing my car the day after graduation, I plotted a route that would take me from Los Angeles to Seattle by driving along California’s famous Pacific Coast Highway, through California wine country, through Redwood National Forest and Portland, Oregon. Upon reaching Seattle, I plotted a route for the second half of my journey home. This one would take me through Yellowstone National Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and three national forests spanning Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana before ultimately driving the entirety of North Dakota to return home to my home town on the Minnesota border.
What makes this experience stand out among all of my travels was the diversity of the scenery. The craggy, chaparral-covered hillsides of the the Pacific coastline plummeting into endless expanses of the Pacific Ocean on the coastal highway was awe-inspiring. The gently rolling hills of California’s Napa and Sonoma Valleys, blanketed in summer heat and sunshine, were peaceful reminders of small farming communities of my youth. The size of the trees in Redwood National Forest are incomprehensibly large reminders of how small but impactful we are as human beings.
Steve Bergman is TIP’s International Programs Coordinator.