Meredith began traveling at the age of 23 when she and her best friend Sandy backpacked across Europe. They slept on park benches, beaches, and several trains, seeking out adventures all along the way. Since then, Meredith’s career has taken her from the sandy dunes of Africa to ancient temples in Indonesia, and to the Venetian canals that inspired her upcoming book, Inventing the World.
In her upcoming book, Meredith leads a new travel movement that shies away from site-seeing, focusing instead on “site-being.” That is, being wholly and radically present wherever you are, immersing yourself in the history of your environment, and leaving with a sense of having been enriched, rather than “refreshed” from your travels. Meredith seeks not to “take” from the places she visits, but rather to highlight and amplify the voices that bring those places to life: voices that are often overlooked in today’s fast-moving “top-ten” dominated world.
In a time of global isolation, Meredith reminds us of the connections we have not only to each other, but to our past. We might never know why we are where we are, but Meredith certainly helps answer how we got here.