Hello! My name is Emma Steen. I’m from the small town of Moose Lake in northern Minnesota. I graduated in 2023 from the University of St. Thomas with a major in International Studies and a Spanish minor. During my time in college I spent the Fall of 2021 in Galway, Ireland for a semester study abroad where I fell in love with the island. I now consider it my second home and take multiple trips back to visit friends and my boyfriend. After graduating college, I wasn’t quite sure what to do next so I spent 3 months in Mallorca as an au pair. Here I experienced the true meaning of living abroad and what we all have to gain from pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones abroad. That has become my founding principle of travel and what I will always encourage others to do during their own travels. Since then I have found new ways to learn and grow abroad and at home. Recently I have explored the more sustainable and natural side of travel through WWOOFing in Italy where I fell in love with gardening and learning to hike to take on Rocky Mountain National Park. These are not my usual trips, as someone who longs to just sit in a cafe in a European city.
It is my dream to travel the world. I love everything about it; the music, the food, the history, and the culture. All of these I things I write about in my blog. My mindset when traveling is to live like and learn from the locals. When traveling I try to stay away from resorts and hotels and instead find ways to spend time with locals, like visiting friends abroad or combining my trip with an experience like au pairing or WWOOFing. I believe we are meant to always be learning something new and that is exactly what travel provides. I am alway learning. I would really like to share that with others. My dream is to become a travel writer, so someday I can be a full time traveler. For now I am a substitute teacher who sells baked goods at the local farmers market and I am just figuring things out, but that is what your 20s are for. All of that said, I hope you enjoy my blog, because I really enjoy writing it. 🙂
The Journal of Wanderlust 