It Was All A Dream!

  "It was all a dream....I used to read National Geographic Magazine..."

I know that's not how the song goes but that was indeed the story of my life. Unlike B.I.G I used to hang pictures of the Sphinx and the Champs Ellyses on my wall...next to my poster of Salt-n-Peppa and Heavy D up in the limosine. Despite my young age I knew that it was quite possible I'd meet them all at some point (and I did). Like most 80's brown babies I grew up reading VIBE, Essence, Ebony and the rest but I had a secret obsession with my dad's Robb Report and National Geographic magazines. I would make mental notes of all the fabulous and mysterious places I would one day visit once I was able to break from the confines of homework and chores.........

I started off not taking no for an answer. I saw no reason why I couldn't see the world even though I had no real income to speak of and barely knew how to get around the block. At 17 I decided Martha's Vineyard wasn't an option for my senior trip since a friends parents had a time share in the Bahamas. I convinced my parents that a week in the Bahamas was a better investment in my future. At 18 a professor told me I wasn't qualified to be a delegate for the school in Argentina for the Model Organization of American States because I wasn't a political science major. I told him I was a better politician than he could ever be and proceeded to convince his boss that I was not only going on the trip, but that I would co-lead the delegation. And I did, the rest as they say, is history. The following fall, at 19, I moved to Tokyo to study Japanese and International Business. Since then I've been to China, England, Scotland, Wales, Canada (yes it counts dammit), Ireland, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Croatia, Montenegro, Egypt, Brazil, Dominican Republic.

What I've learned over the years is that the destination is really the journey. The greatest reward in travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted. I live for the possibility to experience a thousand sunsets a thousand different ways, and most importantly, I believe its my life's purpose to bring that experience to everyone. With that said, I present to you the "Adventures in Divaland" logo. It's just a step, but we all know a journey of a thousand begins with just that.....

 To me this is much more than a logo, this is something I can look at, along with the stamps on my passport, to remind me where I've been but most importantly where I'm going. There's so much love left to spread over the  world to see and I'm just the girl for the job.

-Carmen

 “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” - St. Augustine


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