I interrupt this regularly scheduled Belize programming to bring you breaking news: I am now officially in my thirties.

Yep, that’s right. Last week, I celebrated my 30th birthday (on the Great Wall of China!). Talk about shock and awe. I feel like at any moment I will wake up from this dream and discover to my relief that I am not really that old.

I mean, look at me … do I look 30 to you?

As I reflect on the last thirty years and how they have influenced my identity today, I am reminded of how God has used so many of my experiences traveling the world to help shape that identity; to give me perspective; to broaden my worldview; to expand my compassion for others.

The more Justin and I travel, the more we find ourselves marveling, “I cannot believe what my eyes have seen.”

I have seen more than I could have ever possibly imagined. I have traveled to 21 countries on five continents. I have visited ruins I learned about in middle school. I have met people from cultures I never even knew existed. I have visited some of the world’s poorest communities. I have walked on the ruins of history.

I never thought such opportunities would be within my reach, let alone that I would find the time to take advantage of them. Or that I would move to China.

Sure, there are days when travel seems to lose its luster, but overall, I am very grateful to have traveled as much as I have. These moments, these experiences, these cultural exchanges, have drastically altered my perspective on life and shifted my priorities.

So as I embrace a brand new decade and celebrate another year of life, I would like to highlight 30 travel experiences that have helped shape the person I am today.

In no particular order, my favorite and most transformative travel memories include:

1.) Visiting the Grand Canyon with my dad my sophomore year in high school and gazing out over one of God’s most spectacular works of art for as far as my eye could see.

2.) Traveling to Washington, D.C. as a first grader, unleashing a life-time obsession with politics, government, and U.S. Presidents.

3.) Working with orphans in Uganda and witnessing the power of God’s Love to transform and restore shattered lives.

4.) Visiting the “garbage city”, one of the worst slums in Cairo, Egypt, where the thousands of residents, Coptic Christians, make their living by sorting the city’s trash. Until this point, I never knew poverty of such magnitude existed.

5.) Sea kayaking in the Adriatic Sea during our honeymoon in Croatia.

6.) Eating dog in South Korea. A truly moving experience on many levels.

7.) Exploring the Maya ruins at Tikal in Guatemala, visiting a place I remember reading about in my middle school Social Studies text book.

8.) Visiting the Nazi Concentration Camp of Dachau, outside Munich, Germany, a profoundly moving experience, which serves as my main motivation to continue traveling today.

9.) Gazing out over Lake Lucerne from the top of Switzerland’s Mt. Pilatus and feeling like the hills were alive with the Sound of Music.

10.) Praising the Lord alongside my Egyptian brothers and sisters.

11.) Spending the night with a local family on rural Isla Taquile on Peru’s Lake Titicaca.

12.) Visiting Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina and realizing the wounds of war have yet to fully heal. This tiny Bosnian town was devastated during the Yugoslavian war during the 1990s. Pockmarked and crumbling buildings, as well as geographic ethnic divisions within the town, are constant reminders of the conflict.

13.) Watching baby sea turtles hatch on Tobacco Caye in Belize.

14.) Riding camels around the Pyramids at Giza in Egypt — one of the coolest experiences of my life, and a great way to spend a summer in college!

15.) Being in Arthur Ashe Stadium for one of Andre Agassi’s final matches of his career at the 2006 U.S. Open. This was the realization of two of my greatest childhood dreams, to attend the U.S. Open AND to see Agassi play. The best part though? My mom came with me.

16.) Standing on top of an un-restored section of the Great Wall of China and imaging all the sacrifice that went into building it.

17.) Rafting along the Nile River in Uganda and realizing I had now been at both ends of one of the world’s most famous rivers!

18.) Cycling over 100 miles along New England’s scenic coastline from Massachusetts to Maine and realizing what a beautiful country I call home.

19.) Crunching through three feet of snow on snow shoes in my favorite place in the world, New Hampshire’s stunning White Mountains.

20.) Marrying my best friend at our historic New England church, attended at one time or another by the likes of American Revolutionary War heroes George Washington and John Adams and theologian Jonathan Edwards.

21.) Emerging from the stairwell of London’s Underground to the sound of bagpipes and the sight of Big Ben all aglow.

22.) Pausing to pray in Madrid’s Iglesia de San Francisco.

23.) Visiting the 1896 Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece, bringing this Olympic fanatic to the verge of tears.

24.) Breaking bread with refugees who have fled some of the world’s most oppressive regimes.

25.) Skating on the 1976 Olympic Speed-Skating Oval in Lake Placid, New York.

26.) Visiting the Demilitarized Zone (aka “the DMZ”) on the border of North and South Korea.

27.) Watching giant Andean condors soar over the world’s deepest canyon, Colca Canyon in Peru.

28.) Standing soberly before the crumbled World Trade Center towers just days after they were struck on September 11, 2001.

29.) Watching the sun set on the beautiful island of Santorini in Greece.

30.) Exploring the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru, the realization of a 6th grade dream.

Wow, it’s certainly been an exhilerating 30 years! I can only imagine what my eyes will see over the next 30 years.

What travel experience has helped shape the person you are today?