Traveling to me is not just about vacation or adventure, but a chance to discover and re-discover the meaning of the world and of oneself. I started this journey as a solo female backpacker in my 20s many years ago. And when I almost fell prey to a jaguar in the Amazon jungle, I’ve learned that traveling can be a profound experience. I’ve learned to appreciate life and the irony behind the society’s definition of success that consumes most of our lives. No matter how much money you own or the social class you belong to, in the eyes of a jaguar, you are just meat.

I work as a finance professional in North America and it’s inevitable to get lost in the normalcy of day to day life and become increasingly numb. It’s traveling that reminds me to stop and think every time, resetting perspective and priorities, be grateful of what I have.

I love what Carl Sagan wrote about the photo of planet Earth taken by the Voyager 1 space probe in the 90s (see video). We are homo sapiens. The differences between us are so trivial, yet we are so good at being paranoid and resentful against anything unfamiliar. If only we can travel and visit one another. Behind each culture, religion, political system and social order, we’d find souls that laugh like us, cry like us, love like us, and dream like us. We exist only in a fraction of a second in planet Earth’s time. Our own lifetime is nothing but a tiny little window to participate and witness what the world has to offer. Shouldn’t we say, the most important thing in life, is to get to know one another and the place we share?

This is why I love to travel, and hope you do too. Welcome to Boots & Wheels.