The Explorer
Travel and exploration are amongst the greatest of American ideals. Crossing oceans, leaving the planet, there's always another frontier. Holly Parker embraces that spirit. She's traveled to all seven continents. Travel and exploration are part of her DNA. Her mother Connie was a Pan Am flight attendant when she met Holly’s father. Artie says that he married her for the free travel. Her parents raised their family to embrace travel as a way understand and educate themselves on other cultures and the world the around them. That is something that has helped Holly through her career, to listen to understand.
Travel and exploration however are not exclusive to far-away lands. One of Holly's favorite activities is simply walking in different directions from her family's farm, to see what else is there that she hasn't seen before. A beaver dam. A wildflower clearing. A trail that ends abruptly in the woods, from which one must navigate home the way it's done in the wild: with a compass, the path of the sun and footsteps we left on the way out.
Where to next?
My love of traveling and exploring is as old as I am. I can remember getting lost in the backyard, but not feeling lost. I felt alive, inspired, and determined. When I was expelled from school I went to boarding school far from home. College was as far away as one could get without leaving the country. I went to Pacific Northwest because I knew I would come back to my family in new England and this was my chance to see another part of our amazing country. The Pacific Northwest will always be in my heart. It is simply a majestic area. I have lived in England, Spain, France and Argentina. All of these places and people who hosted me there will always have a place in my heart.
For me family and friends are the most important things in my life. Helping people and understanding the world are the building blocks to a happy life. It all started with connecting to myself and being responsible for my own happiness. To stimulate myself and to keep moving forward to be a lifelong learner is when my life began to evolve in the direction that I had dreamed it would. A life full of love, laughter and learning. A life I had designed in my mind.
