Jenna

Today is my daughter Jenna's 26th birthday, but she turned 26 yesterday.  Yes, that's true.  In New Zealand, where she is currently working, her birthday was yesterday.  Happy Birthday, Jenna, yesterday and today.

Jenna is my wanderer.  For the last ten months, she has been working in Australia, but this was her second stay in the Land Down Under, having been there on a study abroad while she was in college.  And that experience must have sparked something in her, because in between the two Australia visits, she has traveled to Panama and Costa Rica (twice), worked with sea turtles in Sarasota and Malaysia, traveled around Southeast Asia (Laos, Cambodia, Thailand) for three months, and spent time adventuring in England and Wales.  There may have been more that I'm not recalling.  During the last ten months, she has traveled extensively throughout Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand.

Where did she get this wanderlust from?  Our travels when she was young were primarily to the Carolina beaches or Disney World, although we did do a road trip to the Southwest when she was 12.  But when she was a junior in high school, Jenna wanted to be considered for the Environmental Science summer session offered through the Governor's School, a fantastic program which, of course, has now been decimated.  Well, Jenna did get nominated for Governor's School.  I remember well the afternoon I walked in the door to find her with the nomination letter in her hand, crying dramatically.  Turns out, she was nominated for the School for International Studies instead of the School for the Environment.

When we looked into the program to find that it included a trip to Quebec, Jenna's mood brightened.  And yes, she was selected for the program, went to Quebec with the others, and studied at Ramapo College where she learned a thing or two about the world out there.  She became particularly interested in the genocide in Darfur, and set about to raise money for the refugees of that horror.

And I think that's where it began.  I think her experience at Governor's School literally opened up a whole new world for Jenna, and she wants to see as much of it as she can.  Smart, organized, dependable, competent, humanitarian . . . these words describe my little Jenna as well as the woman she has become.  She will return home from Australia in a couple of weeks, and then who knows where her wanderlust will take her?  Not all those who wander are lost.  I hope she will unpack her bags here for at least a little while before she takes off again.

Happy Birthday, Jenna.  I will forever be in love with you.