TTS23 in the Galapagos Islands

TTS23 in the Galapagos Islands
From left to right: Scout, Lindsey, Sophie, Feyza, Erin, Caroline, Lena, Susannah, Charlotte, Rebecca, Allie, Hannah, Alizah, Maisie, Anne, Kate, Courtney

Monday, February 3, 2014

Here's to the next sisterhood of traveling backpacks

Our alumnae are amazing! I want to share this with you to show you the amazing clan and sisterhood your daughters just became a part of! The memories of overstuffed packs is still fresh in our minds. Let's see where their adventures take them and who helps TTS23 open their hearts and minds to a big, big world.

(TTS21 traveled through Central America last spring and continues to inspire one another with Facebook posts and mini reunions)

Dear tts21,
A year ago today the girls we were landed in Guatemala City with packs we could barely carry and all our comforts confined to 80 liters. Sometime during those 4 months we became Zapatista groupies, grass root enthusiasts, parasite carriers, and most of all a borderless family. One time we were asked to write a Where I’m From poem- we wrote about everything from southern drawls, to white picket fences, to homemade cookies and jackson hole skiing. Now when people ask me where I’m from, I have a lot more to explain than a yellow house in Maine. Fifteen amazing women, Lucia, Ramon, Alfredo, Merian, Delfina, Isabel, Lisa, Mitch, Anna, and so many other free spirits, independent travelers, and warmhearted locals became the family that I am still homesick for today.

A year ago when I first tried to pack those 80 liters, I could barely fit in a 3rd shirt, yet somehow those packs brought back so much more than the material objects we came with. So here I am, looking at my empty pack a year later and wanting to fill it again- fill it with rainy season flood memories, and the sound of Lucia yelling “mi amor,” fill it with canta, no llores and fair trade passion. Fill it with adelante and presence. My pack may be empty but my hearts full with all those things. You guys inspire me to keep it that way everyday. Thanks for being an only child’s 14 sisters. 

Emelia

1 comment:

  1. And thank you to you, Emelia, for becoming a big sister to Susannah, TTS 23, while she got her pack together for the adventure she is now apart of in South America. You were a huge help to her and a real inspiration.

    Stephanie

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