Most high schoolers learn about the world through textbooks. But for 17-year-old Peachtree City student Anna, the world is the textbook. With a passport full of stamps and stories from four continents, she’s redefining what it means to learn, grow, and see beyond the bubble of suburban life.
I sat down with her at a coffee shop off Highway 74, where her backpack—covered in airport tags, enamel pins, and sand—rested at her feet. She spoke with the kind of calm confidence that can only come from having seen life in more places than some adults ever will.
Q&A
Q: A lot of teens dream of traveling the world, but you’ve actually done it. How did it all begin?
A: Honestly, it started as a distraction. In 10th grade, me and my mother booked a ticket to Hawaii with money I earned from my small business. I had no idea that trip would change everything. Standing on the beach at sunrise, I remember feeling like, “The world is so much bigger than Peachtree City.” After that, I just kept going—Brazil, Japan, Germany, Mexico, Mauritius. Each place taught me something new.
Q: You describe the world as your classroom. What does that mean to you?
A: Every country feels like a completely different lesson. In Tokyo, I learned discipline and independence just by navigating the subway. In Brazil, I learned joy from the way people dance, laugh, and live loudly. In Germany, I learned to ask questions and appreciate history in a deeper way. Traveling forces you to observe instead of assume. You become your own teacher.
Q: How do these experiences shape your worldview back home in Peachtree City?
A: It makes me see our community differently. Peachtree City is peaceful in a way I didn’t notice before. The trails, the lakes, even the golf carts, those things feel special after you’ve been lost in Mexico City traffic or hiking through bamboo forests. But it also makes me more curious. Whenever I meet someone new here, an immigrant parent, an exchange student, I want to hear their story. Travel makes you softer. More open.
Q: What’s one moment from your travels you’ll never forget?
A: In Mauritius, I met a little girl at a local workshop who handed me a hand-painted seashell and said, “For your journey.” That phrase stuck with me. Not “for your trip,” but “for your journey.” It reminded me that travel isn’t about escape, it’s about understanding how people live, love, struggle, and grow in places far from your own.
Q: As a teen from a small Georgia town, have people ever doubted your ability to travel so independently?
A: All the time. Adults ask, “Aren’t you scared?” or “Isn’t that dangerous?” But fear shouldn’t decide your life. Preparedness should. I plan everything like routes, budgets, safety points. My experiences abroad actually made me more confident and mature than I’d be if I never left home.
Q: What do you think traveling has taught you that school couldn’t?
A: Perspective. In Mexico City, I spent time in a neighborhood where kids worked instead of going to school. In Hong Kong, I met teens my age who were protesting for democracy. In Canada, I talked with Indigenous artists about identity and land. Those conversations you can’t get from a PowerPoint. They make you rethink what matters and who you want to be.
Q: Last question—what’s next on your map?
A: Vietnam or Portugal. Or maybe somewhere totally random. I like going to places I can’t predict. Wherever it is, I’m ready. I think the world still has a lot to teach me.
Closing
Watching her zip up her backpack and step outside into the soft Georgia afternoon, it’s clear that while many teens see Peachtree City as home base, she sees it as a launchpad. A quiet beginning to a life full of motion, learning, and connection.
As she said, “Travel doesn’t change who you are, it shows you who you’ve always been meant to become.”
And for a teen who uses the world as her classroom, that journey is just getting started.