By Jenni Beaver—For Jianna Hoss traveling isn’t about the expensive flights, heavy luggage, and angry travelers. For her, traveling is about enjoying every moment, soaking it all in, and understanding what it means to live each moment like it’s your last.
In 2011, Hoss traveled outside of the country for the first time. She got on a plane and set off to visit her family in Doha, Quatar, and while the experience was pleasant, Hoss admits, “I wish I could say I experienced Doha in my first three years over there, but I didn’t.” She traveled, but she didn’t live the moments.
After graduating in December 2014, Hoss took another trip to Doha, but this time, she lived. As she recounted her experience she said that she met someone who made her experience things like going out at 2am to have a cup of coffee at the coffeehouse on the shoreline. She was able to experience the culture and travel very differently than she had in the past.
In a blog post she made while on her trip, Hoss talked about the meaning of travel. She said that many people think traveling is about making yourself bigger and by getting bigger, somehow you’re made better. Although she believes traveling makes you better, she doesn’t believe it’s done by making you any bigger than you are when you land in that foreign country.
Travel is supposed to break you and bend you. It’s supposed to make you homesick for your bed, your friends, your culture, and the life that you’ve temporarily put on hold. Travel, as Hoss mentions in her blog, is meant to make you better by making you smaller than you were when you arrived on foreign soil.
Hoss’s least favorite part of travel is leaving the place that has taught you so much. However, she believes that if you live in the moment, travel can do a multitude of things for you. She said that the number one thing she’s learned from traveling is how to let it work in her. “I’ve learned how to let it change me. How to let it heal me… if you let it, travel will ruin you – you’ll get homesick for snow and friends and people who love you without a doubt, but you’ll never want to return home.”
She’s a Morningside alum and, at least for a little while, she’s a world traveler who is teaching people that travel is so much more than just getting on a plane and going somewhere. It’s about changing.
“At the end of the day, the best part of travel is that you never come back the same… meet people and love people and go experience their culture, their language, and it will change you forever,” said Hoss.
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