Yes, I work for a travel company.

It’s 9:52 am and you have eight minutes to get to class. The streets are flooded with people, you wonder to yourself why anyone would be up and about this early on their own will. Your head is still a little cloudy from your night last night at the local Irish pub that is constantly flooded with students from the states that are just like you. You are almost to the front door of your school building and you hear that age old question, hey are you studying abroad? You think to yourself again, who else would be walking into a school building wearing a sweatshirt from a college in the states? You look away, say no and walk inside.

This scenario happens about a million times a day for the first few months of the semester. I will be the first one to admit that I have experienced it myself on the student side. What I have also experienced is being on the side of the person that is genuinely interested in talking to you.

Yes, we are there because we have to be. Yes, we most likely would rather be doing other things than walking up to students when they are rushing to not be late. Yes, we do want you to travel with the company we work for. Yes, we are paid to be there. However, the most important yes of all is that we truly do want your study abroad experience to be as amazing as ours was.

I remember when I was a student studying in Florence not so many years ago. I declined loads of flyers and disregarded more Facebook messages from people working for travel companies that I could count. Due to the fact of booking my own trips was extremely tedious and time-consuming, I did end up booking with travel companies and I was extremely thankful that I did. On those trips, I made friends that are forever; people that live on the other side of the country that I still talk to today. Those people being ones that I wouldn't have met, memories that I would have never made, because of this I am more grateful than I could ever explain.

The most important thing though was that the people leading the trips really did want me to see the locations and have an amazing time doing so, which made my experience. I wouldn't  have seen what I saw and went to the places I did without the guides to take me there. Yes, I could have booked on my own and seen the popular sites that I have dreamed of since I was a little girl, but I wouldn't have seen the secret spot one of the guides found or a hole in the wall bar that I wouldn't have even noticed walking by. Having someone to show me those places is what was most impactful, that is what made the trip, not the clichés around every corner in popular cities like Paris and Prague.

I walked away from my four months abroad dying to return. Being a senior when I was studying in Europe, I only had a few months until graduation and I found myself applying to be a travel guide as soon as I returned to the states. Not only did I want to live abroad and travel every weekend, but I also was determined to make an impact on students like my guides impacted me. I work every day to try to expose students to the amazing memories and wonderful encounters I had by traveling with a company like the one I work for, and I can promise that nearly every single person that works in the field I do feels the exact same way.

This isn't a giant sales pitch sob story that you all may think it is. It is an honest explanation of why we are here.

 We are here to better your study abroad experience, we are here for you to walk away from this experience like we did.

You never know, you might be in our shoes in a year or so. So next time, just take the flyer or have the conversation on Facebook. We are more genuine than you think. 

Yes, I work for a travel company.