Write a journal! I wish I had written a daily journal of the things that happened during the trip. Some of the greatest adventures ever, and I wish I had written details down of everything because now, 14 years later, the memories are a bit fuzzy.

I would love to go back and relive my experiences and also have that for my kids to read one day.

I don't believe there are any 2 days that are the same.

When you are on passage, your day will change based on when your watch team is scheduled. One morning, you could witness an incredible sunrise if you are on the 3-6 am watch team and another could be pitch black dark sailing the entire night if you are on the 9 pm-midnight watch team.

Every day brings something totally new and different.

My biggest fear was flying across the world completely by myself. I didn't know the language, I didn't know anyone who was going on the trip with me, there was a lot of unknowns going into my trip. Once I decided to just "get over it" and get on the plane, once I was actually physically there, those fears went away because I realized most everyone had the same fears.

Once I was there, all of my fears went away!

Honestly, I wish I had stayed longer after the trip to travel around the country!

Some of the other students had been traveling a lot more than me in their life already...and knew they should stay after to travel a little. I wasn't really aware of that as an option.

I would have really enjoyed spending an extra week or two traveling around SE Asia.

Since 1998, I have been involved on some level with every student that has sailed with Sea|mester.

The best stories I have all involve Sea|mester being the catalyst for a student to make a huge shift in their trajectory to make the leap to become the person they want to be. From a student who came to us freshly out of dealing with some of life's hardest situations and then wrote to say they were living their dream working in wildlife preservation on an African game preserve. To a student who went on to captain their own small vessel and is looking to work up to being the captain on the Sea|mester vessel they first sailed on, students learn and grow aboard our vessels in a way that they cannot do on a college campus.

I would choose to sail on our voyage from Australia to South Africa. Crossing the India Ocean is a monumental achievement and one that most humans cannot easily arrange. The longer ocean passages involved provide great sailing and the islands we visit are remote enough that some don't have scheduled air flights. That is a rarity in the ever-shrinking world.

Our staff is on program 24/7 for up to 90-days when they are running our voyages. I often describe our crews (students and staff) as families and that brings with it all the smiles, laughs and great times that a family goes through. It also means there will be harder days. Days that, if we were not a family, people would not be committed to seeing the hard days through and would not be there 'no matter what' for each other.

Our staff is always there for the students and each other. That is hard! I am proud of our staff every day for their commitment to the ship and her crew.

Compassion, commitment, and professionalism.

In over 20 years of operation, Sea|mester has operated very successfully in the study aboard and gap year industry due to our core commitment to running safe, engaging, transformational and educational experiences worldwide. Our history and experience in the maritime world are unmatched and we continue to grow our offerings responsibly and with our core principles in focus.