If I won two free plane tickets, I wouldn’t choose based on the usual criteria—weather, reviews, or what’s trending on travel blogs.
I’d choose based on what I want to invest in.
Wonder? Then I’d fly to Iqaluit and join an expedition to Baffin Island. There’s something about wild places—the stark beauty, the silence, the scale of it—that reminds me of nature’s grandeur. It’s a place you go to be re-sized.
History? Armenia. A land where ancient churches cling to mountain edges and the past isn’t buried—it’s sung about, painted on walls, and carried in the food. Not just to see ruins, but to listen to stories that have outlasted empires.
Hope? Then I’d head to Tanzania, to visit friends who are doing hard and fantastic work—helping shape futures, build communities, and walk alongside people in ways that matter. That kind of trip reminds you why you travel in the first place: not just to observe, but to connect.
Love? Paris. Always Paris. It was the focal point of our first real overseas adventure together, full of metro maps, baguettes, museums, and late-night walks by the Seine. We didn’t know it then, but that trip became a kind of compass for us. To return wouldn’t be about nostalgia—it would be about giving thanks.
Two tickets aren’t just about location.
They’re about intention.
About naming what matters right now,
and choosing to go there.
The Afterword 
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