When it comes to school, most people think of learning within the brick walls that surround classrooms. But for others, school isn’t a place, it’s an online learning experience or hands-on learning from anywhere they want. Most homeschooled students do this within the comforts of their home, but a very select few decide to do it whilst traveling. Mia Wilson is a senior at Delphi, but for her first semester, she decided to take online classes and travel the US. By the end of this semester, she will have traveled to Tennessee, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Missouri.

This journey first started with Mia hoping to become a foreign exchange student, but due to world problems and a variety of other reasons, she wasn’t able to. However, due to her love of exploring and visiting new places and different cultures, her family decided on a solution: she would enroll in an online high school for her first semester of senior year and travel the US with her mom. In doing this she has learned not only about different cultures and places, but also more about who she is.

 “I genuinely think that I will come back from this journey a different person. I’ll still be Mia and all, but I’ve learned that I get to choose how I want to live. Most of my life I’ve operated under the stress of what others think about me and my life choices. This trip has shown me that I have control over my life and I don’t have to make my decisions based on the expected approval of others. When I get back, I’m going to reorder my priorities and tailor my routine to fit my needs, not others’ expectations. By doing this, I think I’ll be able to relax and enjoy life a whole lot more,” said Mia.

Even though Mia has been traveling with her mom on this adventure, she still misses the rest of her family. Unfortunately, staying in touch with them has been difficult. Since Mia is traveling through different states, she often finds herself in different time zones, thus making communicating with her dad and siblings complicated.  She states that this is one of the down sides to all of her traveling, but she still loves being able to do this not only for herself but also being able to experience it with her mom. Mia is extremely grateful that her mom, who works from home, is able to and willing to travel with her for endless hours to get to the next state. She is also extremely grateful to her parents for making this trip financially and emotionally doable. 

Twelve states seems chaotic to travel to in the course of five weeks, but according to Mia, this trip has been going great so far. She started her semester of travel with a two week trip to Tennessee to live with one of her life-long friends. Now later into the semester, she is entering the long part of the journey. With the help of her mom, they were able to sit down together and plan out the entire trip. With her mom focusing on the details of the trip, Mia was able to mainly focus on enjoying the trip. Due to this, the trip hasn’t been too hectic and their travels have gone according to plan. Every Sunday, they plan out their daily itinerary for the rest of the week, sometimes down to the hour. Since they have packed so much into this trip, sometimes it feels a little crazy, but that’s mostly due to the busyness of traveling. 

The lesson here is that the standard idea of schooling isn’t necessarily the way that you have to do it. You can study abroad, be a foreign exchange student, or you can pave your own way for schooling just like Mia is. 

For a photo gallery of the places that Mia Wilson has visited, go to the ‘Photos’ tab on the Parnassus website and click ‘Mia’s Travelogue’ on the drop-down menu for full photos.