Never Sit Still: The Allure of Travel Writing

The author takes a photo of the Louvre ceiling.

By J. Schlasner
As an Air Force and oil refinery brat, I’ve moved quite a bit as a child. I became accustomed to nearly annual changes in scenery, friends, schools, and sometimes cultures. When I moved out of my family’s house and into a life of my own, all of that motion suddenly stopped. 

I found myself settled, trapped by the limitations of my own gas budget. The rest of the world still held an interest for me, though, so instead I saw the world through the eyes of others through their work:  cultural studies, sociology, travel literature, films, and television shows. I was in awe of these authors, a profession I’d already chosen for myself at a very young age, who were able to travel and study people and art and food for a living. It was a dream to me—an unrealizable dream.

A tinier author on her first trip out of the continental US.

When I saw the posting for the Puerto Rico classes, I jumped at the opportunity. Though I had never thought of going to Puerto Rico in particular, I knew that this was the chance I’d been looking for to learn more about travel writing techniques and how to go about making it my career. Besides, it had been too long since I last had the chance to observe people just like me whose brains had developed in a culture decidedly different from my own. I can honestly say that is the most attractive aspect of traveling abroad to me. Well, that and the food.

Learning about others and experiencing the world from another point of view makes me feel like a whole person. Sharing photos and stories of the worlds and people I encounter gives me purpose.


 Photos c/o the Schlasner family (2008), (1990).