Kara Hansen

I was born in Southern California in 1990 and lived there for the first few year of my life before recession drove my family to a small town in Oregon called Newberg.

Growing up in the Willamatte Valley was not some extrordinary experience but rather uneventful and normal. Rain was the usual order of the day during majority of my childhood and I spent much of my time reading and drawing. I went camping with friends, played soccer and played the violin; but at the end of the day I preferred getting lost in the library or a freshly sharpened pencil.

As I grew it became evident that the world was not just accessible by book anymore. Living in a small town it is so common the desire to break out and run away from everything (isn't it?), but so is the fear of the unknown. With books I confronted much of the fear in my mind, putting myself in Raskolnikov's guilty shoes or travelling through Mongolia in the Author's pannier and packing every moment in.

Upon graduation I flew down to Mexico to attend a language school. It was my way of avoiding college without completely disappointing my parents. A close friend had joined me, postponing college for a few months. It was like finding the tip of an iceberg. I loved the culture and how colorful everything was compared the soggy pale Quaker town I had grown up in.

From there I could only go deeper; yo yoing between Alaska, Mexico and Oregon (and a six month stint in Quebec) I worked seasonally and tried to enjoy it all. Roadtrips, hitchhiking, music festivals, odd jobs, attempting to ski or living out of a tent (or on a glacier), I kept myself busy.

Recently a friend and asked me to join her on a bike tour through Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It was my first trip overseas and changed me deeply. As much as I loved being in a different culture, what really made my heart throb was traveling on a bicycle for two months. Ever since, I know the "what's next" will include a bicycle, and maybe even my good ol' Beatrice to boot.