My grandmother has always been a storyteller; it came naturally to her as a school librarian.
For her, books were a way to make places feel real before she could ever visit them. Growing up, she didn’t have much money for travel, so when she finally went to Europe after college, it changed her life.
But then came decades of raising children and supporting my grandpa’s career, so travel simply had to wait. Once they retired, my grandparents made up for lost time, seeing the places they’d dreamed about for years, like Paris, St. Petersburg, and the Greek Islands.
Although my grandmother enjoyed traveling later in life, she always wanted two things for her grandchildren: an education and the chance to see part of the world before settling down.
So, right before I graduated from college with a teaching degree, she handed me an envelope with a check for $2,000 and said, “Go to Europe. See it for yourself.”
At the time, I was just excited to go on vacation — I had no idea how much this gift would shape my perspective and my career as a teacher.
During my trip, I visited some of the places I grew up reading about
After graduation, I began planning my first international trip, somehow packing five countries and numerous cities into only 14 days. When I told my grandma my plans, she groaned, wondering how I could fully explore a place in just a few days.
But I didn’t care. I just wanted to see as many things as possible — especially the places I had read about in books.
For example, visiting the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam was surreal. I’d read her diary multiple times growing up, but being there felt different. Heavier.
I walked slowly through the rooms, taking it all in. I gasped when I noticed the faded pencil markings, leftover from when Anne’s dad would track her height during the time in the Annex. It was the first time the small details I’d read about in school truly came to life before me.
The same was true when I fought through crowds to catch a glimpse of the famous “Mona Lisa” in Paris and stood in the Globe Theatre in London, marveling at how Shakespearean plays were actually staged.
When it was time to go home, I already knew I’d be booking another trip as soon as I could.
Frequent travel has made me a better teacher
In addition to changing me personally, travel also affected how I showed up for my students. I continued exploring the world during school breaks and summer vacations, each trip inspiring new ways to bring what I’d seen back into the classroom.
I began infusing my lessons with little anecdotes from my travels — things the kids might not pick up on just from reading alone.
But even though my students were learning a lot, I knew that classroom learning couldn’t quite compare to exploring the world firsthand.
So, a few years into my career, my coworker and I created our school’s first-ever international travel program. Over the past decade, we’ve led student tours to Europe, curating itineraries and adventures that we knew would inspire our students.
Instead of reading about King Arthur, they’ve ducked through the narrow passageways of a real medieval castle, trying to picture what it actually felt like to live inside those walls.
Rather than simply studying Shakespeare in a classroom, they’ve sat in the Globe Theatre where his words were first performed, and walked the streets of Stratford-upon-Avon where he was born.
It’s been incredibly rewarding to see how travel changes my students, just as it changed me after that first trip 13 years ago.
Looking back, I can’t say for certain whether my wise librarian of a grandmother knew that she would ignite something so powerful with one thoughtful gift … but I think she definitely had an idea.
She knew what it was like to dream longingly about places she’d only read about in books long before she could afford to see them.
And as she did so many years ago, I realized the world is a better teacher than any book — and the best gift you can give someone is the chance to find that out for themselves.
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