A friend's dad always said, "Don't ever let schoolin' get in the way of your education." I'm glad I never did.

At age 10, I embarked on my first trip abroad to Austria for a family ski trip. Foreign travel opened my eyes to a larger world of new sights, sounds, smells, and tastes - experiences that cannot be taught in a classroom. The trip to Austria would be the first of many. At fourteen, I spent the summer abroad in Germany, and have since traveled to 27 other countries, including a few island countries, and summers in France and Mexico. My love for travel and other cultures even led me to a Master's degree in International Relations.

I am inspired most by foreign travel. When I need to recharge, I love to hop on a plane and get lost in a sea of new faces, places, and stimuli. I find that I appreciate my life and surroundings even more when I come back home to Kentucky.

Ansel Adams said, “You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” I would add, "the places you have traveled."

I see Gertrude Stein, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in Paris,

Hemingway at a bull fight,

Washington Irving in the shadows of the Alhambra,

my ancestors in Scotland,

and my heart in Kentucky.