10 Years, 10 Moments That Changed The Way I Think About Travel

That changed the way I think about travel

- Divia Thani

1. COMING TO AMERICA

Where are the skyscrapers? I am 17 and heading to the US for an undergraduate degree. After a heart-stopping 20-minute phone call (these were the days international calls cost a dollar a minute), a dean of admissions confirmed that the University of Pittsburgh would offer me a scholarship at its branch campus in Bradford, Pennsylvania. These were pre-Google days; we didn’t even own a computer. But I knew Pennsylvania was right under New York on a map. I said yes right away. Little did I know that Bradford was a small, mostly-white town of about 10,000 people, and New York City was a seven-hour drive away. I remember seeing nothing but trees on the plane ride to Bradford. My only exposure to America had been Manhattan, and I had little reason to think that all of the US did not look shiny and imposing. Instead, I landed at an airport the size of my home; no immigration counters, porters, or food stalls. And, I discovered, lugging two massive suitcases off a tiny belt, no taxis. “Bradford has one cab driver,” a kind local explained. “And it’s Sunday, so it’s Bob’s day off.” I knew, at that moment, that this experience was going to be foreign in more ways than I could have ever imagined.

2. OUT OF AFRICA