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When my surgeon told me that after my ACL reconstruction surgery, I was going to have to delay my trip to Florida, I panicked. I had planned the whole trip so my twin daughters and I could fly together to spend some time in the sun with the grandparents.

When I was working remotely in 2021, my boyfriend and I packed up and traveled to 22 countries across Europe and Latin America.

When I reflect on my teenage years, I remember the peer pressure, the pimples, and the sting of social awkwardness. I especially remember the feeling of my parents just not "getting me."

As a third-year college student attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins, I jumped at the chance to study abroad. Trading in a semester of snow and freezing temperatures for beautiful architecture and centuries-old art was a no-brainer.

Last fall, my husband and I booked a two-week vacation to Greece and Italy. We aptly coined this our "empty-nester moon" as we had just sent our only 18-year-old daughter, Hailey, off to college. Many people take honeymoons, and some take babymoons, so we figured, why not take an empty-nester moon?

Over four years ago, I bought a double-decker bus with three friends. We dreamed of converting it into a mobile hostel where we could travel and take people with us on our adventures. We thought it was the perfect combination of our passions for entrepreneurship, adventure, and traveling.

Bright and early on a Saturday morning last March, I boarded a flight southbound to Florida with hundreds of other college students.

I've dreamed of travel ever since my uncle gave me a subscription to National Geographic magazine for my 8th birthday.

When I was 32, I immigrated to the US by myself. I had no family, friends, or job prospects here, but I packed whatever fit from my life in one bag and came here.

"You're a masochist!" another dad exclaimed during our daughters' playdate when I told him our flight itinerary.

In my late 20s, I left my beloved Philadelphia apartment near friends and favorite restaurants and moved to the suburbs closer to my boyfriend and work. Then my boyfriend moved to Texas for a job. After five months of long distance, the pandemic hit, and I started working remotely from his home in Houston.

It was Christmas Day, and we were about to fly from Miami to Panama City. Before we even took off, my husband was ready to lose it, not because of something the airline did or an annoying passenger but because of the lack of space.

In 2017, I was invited to Temptation Cancún, an adults-only resort with tops-optional areas, with a group of journalists.

For New Year's, I thought it would be fun to go skiing in another country while casually conversing with a friend I had known for over 20 years. A few days after I brought it up, she bought her plane ticket from Florida to Barcelona.

I visited 30 countries while I was in my 20s.

After five or so dates, I thought I'd finally found someone I genuinely liked. He was intelligent, clever, and loved architecture and art —which I found heavily attractive. He came at things with a confident humbleness that I enjoyed being around.

Since having children 10 years ago, I've never been away from them for more than two nights. And those infrequent two-night mini-getaways have been with my husband. So, in 10 years, I've never traveled alone.

While we were growing our family, my husband and I raised our kids in the Middle East, starting from when our oldest child was a toddler up through her middle school years. Since we were already on that side of the Atlantic, halfway around the world from our native United States, we seized the opportunity to travel and experience nearby locations.

Ko Pha-ngan is world-renowned as Thailand's "Party Island."

As a child, I eagerly awaited the annual road trips across the US with my parents and two siblings. Those childhood adventures ignited my wanderlust and inspired me to visit all 50 states, a journey I completed more than a decade ago. My parents often tease me about the time my 6-year-old self declared during one of our cross-country trips, "This isn't a vacation. We're just driving!" But little did I know that those seemingly endless miles would leave an indelible imprint, filled with laughter, bonding, and unforgettable memories, shaping me into the avid traveler I am today.

"Hi everyone. My name is Laura. I'm a doctor from Nova Scotia, Canada, and a fun fact about me is that even though I'm here alone,  I just got married last month."