About Jovan Rivera

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Hi, Travel Friends! My name is Jovan Rivera and I’m an avid traveler who is passionate about seeing all the beauty this world has to offer.

Planes, Planes, and More Planes

All this goes back to my childhood.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been fascinated by geography, travel, and planes. In fact, my mother told me that my very first word was actually airplane. I’m not sure if I believe it, because the word seems pretty difficult for a toddler, but whether it was the 1st word or the 10th, it serves as a great example of how much I’ve been interested in planes!

One thing I remember for sure was having airplane wallpaper in my room, along with a huge map. I vividly remember tracing the planes with my hands and staring at the map in amazement. I was also that kid who remembered the capital cities of each state in the U.S. (and still do)!

I write all this just to illustrate how travel has always been at the front of my mind.

My family didn’t vacation much when I was a kid but I did move around the U.S. a lot. From birth to when I left high schooI, I lived in different cities across California, Florida, New York, and New Jersey. Oddly enough, I remember looking forward to these moves since they would come every few years or so. So much, that when my mom would sit me and my sister down and let us know we’d be moving, I would get excited and ask where!

There was one stretch when we were living in Union City, New Jersey for about 4 years. Around year 2, I remember approaching my mom and asking when we were moving and her telling me we did not have any plans to move.

This interaction has always stuck with me. Looking back, I don’t think I disliked New Jersey or any other city we lived in, but I just craved change and a new location.

Studying Abroad

Fast forward to 2015, the year I decided I wanted to study abroad. 

Going into college, I knew this was going to be something I would take advantage of, but wasn’t sure about where or how because I figured it would be so expensive. 

I ended up learning that studying abroad—in some places—would actually be cheaper for me than paying tuition in New York. With that, I looked into a program at the University of Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden.

I eventually came to learn that Sweden was very expensive, but I was still technically paying less for tuition.

And off I was!

This was my first time in Europe and I fell in love! Everything just looked so much different than the United States. The architecture, transportation, people’s fashion: all of it was just so new!

I can still think back to that first day—even what I was wearing! Staring out the window during my ride from the airport to the apartment and watching everything in amazement.

I was addicted!

During this time, I was fortunate to do something traveling and got to see a few different countries. Though I had the travel bug way before this, visiting Spain, Denmark, Ireland, and England was the cherry on top.

A Life of Travel

Outside of a trip to the Dominican Republic in graduate school, I took things pretty easy for the rest of college—admittedly, not out of choice (struggle of a broke college student).

But as soon as I landed my first full-time job and felt somewhat stable financially, it was on! In a span of 2 years, I went back to Europe and visited South America. I traveled to old places and new, Spain, Colombia, Italy, and Brazil among the few!

A year or so later and here I am. I’m currently enrolled as a PhD student and writing my dissertation (thesis for my folks outside the U.S.), and, at the time of writing, I’ll be quitting my job in 2 months and setting off on a lifetime of travel with no end date!

This wasn’t always in the cards, though. I always thought I would need to squeeze travel in to the 2-3 weeks of vacation I can get from my job, and that would be it. But after exposing myself to so many different perspectives (check out the resources page for some of them), I learned that your life can revolve around travel if you want it to. 

My response? Sign me up!

With that said, in the near future I see Argentina, Spain, and likely some time in Southeast Asia.

I don’t know what exactly the next 10 years or so are going to look like, but one thing I can say for certain is that travel will be front and center.

No doubt about it, I’m just beginning my journey. While you’ll see resources and some destination and itinerary tips on this site, most of it will be focused on the journey to full-time travel, along with what it’s like to be a PhD student while doing it. Through my posts and insights, I’ll encourage you to live the life that you want to live without having to apologize for it! Learning this has been essential to my journey thus far, and I hope I can be that for you.

See you around, Travel Friends!