The Global Awareness for Travelers Story
Mosaic outside a mosque, Iran, photo Denise Ames
Dr. Denise R. Ames has moved from her academic career as an educator to creating an educational, non-profit travel program. Her academic subjects of world history, US history, cultural diversity, global issues, geography, and global awareness and her personal work in the areas of personal and global well-being, parlay smoothly into enhancing global awareness for travelers. Dr. Ames is passionate about traveling and learning about different cultures and their history; she hopes to share her passion and years of accumulated knowledge and lived experiences about these topics with fellow engaged travelers.
“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign. ”
The Full Global Awareness for Travelers Story
by Dr. Denise R. Ames
What to do next? This question started to gnaw at me as early as 2016. I was not surprised by this flood of feelings that were occupying my mind, I have noticed they seem to emerge in patterns every 8 to 9 years throughout my life. It was not new.
Since 2008 I had turned my attention from teaching history at Central New Mexico College to developing a non-profit, educational organization: Center for Global Awareness. Although I called myself and the people I worked with CGA since 2003, I wanted to expand my interests in world history, global issues, and global awareness into a more organized educational non-profit. A partner joined me in 2009, and I set about writing globally-focused books and resources for educators and students grades 9-university and conducting professional development training for teachers. By 2016, I completed six books. I also enjoyed working on various educational projects in nine different countries. My success was modest but fulfilling.
Church doors, Florence, Italy, photo Denise Ames
By 2016 I was getting restless. I felt my time was passing as a global education expert. In fact, unfortunately, the whole field seemed to fall out of favor, and instead a social justice approach gained traction. It had been years since I taught in the classroom, and I had little interest in keeping up with the latest educational trends. I needed to transition to something else. But what?
I thought perhaps my new “life’s calling” had fallen in my lap when my cousin knew someone who knew someone in the cruise ship industry. In a round-about way, I was asked to become a cruise ship lecturer. It sounded too good to be true. I signed up for my first two-week cruise of the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas in October 2016. I worked diligently on the six lectures. The cruise was fun but the audience for the lectures was sparse. My schedule was shuffled around, and some lectures cancelled at the last minute, priority given to a “trunk sale.” I was a bit disappointed but thought I would try another one.
But the next one would have to wait. My daughter, who was expecting twins in January, prematurely gave birth in November 2016. My help was desperately needed and I gladly spent several months, off and on, in Brooklyn, New York helping out with my new grandson and granddaughter, and my 4-year old granddaughter. It was a lot of work but I had a very rewarding feeling helping to nurture the next generation.
Once I returned home to Albuquerque, New Mexico in the spring of 2017, I felt very ungrounded, I needed to turn my attention to my new calling, if I only could figure out what it might be. I liked teaching, so I reasoned that turning from educators to lifelong learners was a fairly seamless step. I finished my seventh book, Five Worldviews: The Ways We See the World, and thought it would be fun to teach the content through adult education programs in Albuquerque. I enthusiastically submitted proposals and fine-tuned the course. I had good response to the classes, and it was fun.
In the meantime, I booked another cruise ship lecture series, this time a cruise of the Baltic Sea. Another six lectures for a 2-week cruise. I enjoyed the cruise, although I spent about one-third of my time with lost luggage! But again, my schedule was abruptly changed, one lecture was cancelled, and I felt that maybe I wasn’t meant to be a cruise ship lecturer. Although the reviews were above average, they were not outstanding. I was gently told that I needed to be more of an entertainer. Although my classrooms teaching was often funny and relaxed, I am not a stand-up comedian. It looked like I needed to let go of my short-lived cruise-ship lifestyle.
A Buddhist pagoda, Tang Dynasty, Xian, China, photo Denise Ames
“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.”
– Mark Jenkins
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
From 2018 until COVID -19 hit in March 2020, I continued with my lifelong adult learning classes at various venues in Albuquerque. I also put together a program called GATHER through the Center for Global Awareness (Global Awareness Through Engaged Reflection). GATHER is a conversation-based study program connecting small groups of concerned and curious lifelong learners. Each self-organizing group gathers together to study and talk about pressing global and cultural concerns with the goal of seeing issues from different perspectives. I enjoyed adjusting to an adult audience some of my tried and try topics—a holistic world history, the global economy, five worldviews, human rights, and cross-cultural awareness—and added some new ones too, such as Indigenous Wisdom and a Transformative Worldview. I got my eighth book out in early 2020: Divided: Five Colliding Worldviews and How to Navigate Them. But then came COVID-19.
Things seemed to shut down overnight! I remember it well. I planned to leave on March 12, 2020 for an annual mini-family reunion to Savannah, Georgia. I had been looking forward to it for weeks, and all the plans were finalized, down to reservations for an open-air bus tour of the city. Then came the wrenching decision to cancel the whole trip when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. It didn’t seem worth the risk to travel afar. We optimistically reasoned that we would reschedule in the fall, when surely the pandemic would be under control. It wasn’t!
Like many people, COVID turned my life upside down. Although thankfully I didn’t experience any physical or financial difficulties, the mental impact was straining. The rest of my adult education classes were cancelled and I was left in limbo about what to do to fill my time. At least the downtime gave me an opportunity to reassess what I planned to do with the rest of my life. Although I could officially “retire” and live a life of leisure and ease, my nature is not one to do that.
I did not have an interest in reviving my educational non-profit, and my partner had lost interest in it as well. Our educational careers were long in the past. I could continue with the classes I taught for lifelong learners in Albuquerque, but after three years of teaching many delightful adults, I didn’t have the passion to continue that either. What would be next on my plate?
“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius
A Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, photo Denise Ames
I took some time to explore my real passions. What skills did I have that could be translated into another project? It was fun to study different options and look for any synchronistic clues that could help guide me in a new direction. One thing that I am really passionate about is travel. Of course, COVID-19 had a dire impact on the travel industry, but it has come back, and it looks as though more travelers are looking for a different approach to travel than has been offered in the past.
I really enjoy writing and I wanted to link my love of writing with travel. During the fall of 2020, I decided to do a bit of experimenting with linking my two passions into a travel related blog. I found that I had good response (lots of likes and follows) and I really enjoyed writing the posts. I also combined my hobby of photography and writing into a fun package.
My plate was beginning to fill with some interesting new ideas for my future plans. I have been teaching, researching, and writing about certain topics for years—a holistic world history, cross-cultural awareness, five worldviews, personal well-being, and global issues—and these topics link very nicely with the needs of the travel industry. It would be seamless to link travel with my interests—since they overlap—I would put all this together into an educational travel program that would be a program of my existing non-profit organization, the Center for Global Awareness. Bingo, I thought I had a winning combination.
An Iranian man selling halva, photo Denise Ames
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust
I came up with a catchy angle for my project (at least I thought it was catchy): I would emphasize enhancing and practicing global awareness for curious and engaged travelers. I would call it Global Awareness for Travelers: Travel with New Eyes with Dr. Denise R. Ames. (It even made a catchy acronym GATE.) I knew it was a good idea since I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
But the next question I had to address was how was I going to go about spreading the word on this new travel organization. I thought of my role as a sort of travel advisor or consultant (actually, just another form of teaching). I would put together a program and create services that would implement the program’s goal of advocating for global awareness. It sounded very promising and I was eager to get started.
I had some topics that I thought would be of interest to travelers, but the big question was how to go about marketing it to potential travelers and the travel industry. Marketing has never been my strong suit, so I struggled to pinpoint who would be a possible audience for my program. I watched for synchronicities and they started to come my way. I started working on a business plan and a short overview of the program.
I decided that my first step would be to write a book describing my program called Travel with New Eyes: Global Awareness for Travelers, it would be my eleventh book. During this process, I could flesh out some of the particulars of the program and see if it had any merit. I enjoyed the writing process and finished the book in the spring of 2023, it is now published.
Next on my list was to create a new website. I still had the somewhat antiquated Center for Global Awareness site. It is a complicated mixture of software and the hands of different people, so I knew I could never tackle it. Instead, I decided to create my own website, in which I would be able to make changes and add information as needed. I first started a WordPress website, but I got so frustrated that I gave up after a few months and many fruitless hours. I did more research and found that Squarespace had a much easier website process and experimented with a trail period. Surprisingly, I caught on pretty fast. You are probably reading this GATE story on the completed website. I created a basic site and decided I would gradually add more content. I even updated my social media platforms.
The year 2023 wound to a close and my creation of GATE is progressing nicely. But I had another setback that delayed my efforts. My left knee—I chipped a bone in my kneecap when a horse fell with me in the middle of a road at the age of 13—had been gradually deteriorating and I could no longer put off the inevitable: total knee replacement surgery. Although the surgery was successful, the recovery to get up to my former stamina and knee flexibility has been long. At least I am now able to turn my attention to GATE rather than be consumed by knee related issues.
I am now ready for the next steps which include reaching a travel audience, promoting the benefits of global awareness for travelers, and general outreach. No small task. Although the threat of COVID-19 has receded, it is still a worry for many travelers. Also, an uncertain world situation is causing a great deal of consternation at the time of this writing. I am hopeful that the rest of 2024 will turn out to be a good year for travel and a rewarding one for my new endeavors.