About the author

A little about me.. My name is Olivia Richards, I am 19 years old and I am from Saratoga Springs, New York. I have one sibling, an older sister, Hadley. Hadley recently graduated college and is now traveling for a bit then starting a job in New Mexico. I was competitive rower since in the age of 12 and grew up playing golf with my family. I am now a freshman at High Point University, starting out with a business management degree with either a minor in finance or photography, sort of following my sisters lead in a way. I hope to go into business with my father after college.

After graduating high school in june of 2016 with the support from my parents, I decided to postpone college to travel. Once making that decision and creating a plan, I took off to South America to go back-packing for a few months with 13 other people my age of whom I met in Colorado a few days before the trip. Bolivia was our first destination then continued on exploring into Peru, Ecuador, and then ending in the Galapagos Islands. In each country we spent time completing different types of community service. When not working we explored, spending time in spots where tourists usually didn't go in order to fully emeerge ourselves in their culture. My highlight of the trip was completing the trek of 80+ kilometers to one of the seven wonders of the world, Manchu Picchu.

When finishing up my travels in South America I took multiple shorter trips, then finished my traveling with a surfing trip to Costa Rica for a couple months. This was a different experience for me because instead of traveling with someone else or a group of people went to costa rica alone knowing no one but it ended up being the best decision. I surfed all day, did some photography, and made friends from all over the world, it was the perfect way to end my year.