By Kelly Cacciolfi | Observer Contributor
“Just go and go with someone” is what Heather Conn, current Assistant Professor of Biology and Department Chair, Natural Sciences, gives for advice about travel. Conn shared what she has learned through her journeys from a young age.
It all started with a trip with her family to Disney in Williamsburg where Conn said, “that’s when I became obsessed with maps and I am very good at reading them.” When Conn was in 5th or 6th grade, her father (Steve) won a trip to Mexico through his work. He then decided to rent a car for their excursions.
At the pyramids in Mexico is where Conn said, “I found out I am claustrophobic from my parents sending me into the pyramids to explore ALONE”. She also shared that’s when she learned how assertive men were toward women, even at her young age. Next the family took a trip to Jamaica where Conn said, “I got mono; it’s not good getting so sick in a third world country”.
Next came Conn’s study abroad with her trip to Australia; here she learned that “Australian’s like our accents as much as we like theirs” and so much more. Conn saw what an undertoe could do to a friend swimming in the ocean. One minute they were together and the next they had been pulled out to sea. They went to the Great Barrier Reef, “That’s where I got over my fear of fish and I went snorkeling so much”.
Conn had been addicted to seeing a manta ray and was convinced that she would find one while at the Great Barrier Reef; one morning a friend and Conn went snorkeling only to get tailed by a shark. Conn said, “all I could do was think, keep in front and swim fast!” On her way home, she stopped in New Zealand where Conn said, “ it was 1995 and I was surprised people who had purchased round the world tickets would not want to come to the US because they feared us and they would go right to their next destination”.
Once Conn graduated, she toured Europe where she said, “I loved staying in hostels; they are so cheap, and in Germany and Spain we would hang out and sing. Music connects so many people from some many different places.” In Rome she had the chance to sit six rows back from the Pope during Easter Sunday just by not sticking to a plan.
She shares that her favorite place by far to travel has been the United States. Her advice, “grab a tent and get in the car. We live in a amazing, diverse, beautiful country”.
Conn dose have a bucket list of places to visit in the future and her advice is “that if you’re a teacher marry one so will can take the summers off together to explore”. She would like to travel to Switzerland, Rome, Spain, and her husband would like to go to the Tour de France, as he is a cyclist. When her two children are older, they will go to Machu Picchu to spread both her grandmother’s and grandfather’s ashes on a peak of a mountain. That will include a seven-day hike to get there.
Conn’s passion is represented in her office, which you can stop by to see in room S205.
That is where she displays some of her travel treasures including a tile from Pompeii, shells, and lots of rocks. She brings her joy of travel into how she teaches in the classroom. Conn stated, “ I love seeing travel through new eyes” and hopes one day to start a program here at MWCC for travel.
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