Being a travel writer

travel writing — By Bob Riel on April 4, 2006 at 10:17 am

Travel writer Rolf Potts has for several years now been running monthly interviews with fellow writers on his website. This month’s segment is with Amanda Jones. A sample:

What is the biggest reward of life as a travel writer?

I am one of the richest people I know in experience (with the exception of my other travel writer friends). What I have not earned by way of money is more than compensated for by wealth of experience. It has shaped me as a person in a way no office job could. I am braver, calmer, wiser, more tolerant, more competent, more interesting, more amused and possibly more amusing than I would be if I were not a traveler. The road teaches many things.

But perhaps the best thing is that my two daughters have been raised traveling themselves. They have seen incredible poverty and great riches; and they know the rest of the world’s people do not think or look or live like Americans. Because of this they are wonderful little human beings. That alone makes it all worthwhile.