Showing results by author "Sarah Menkedick" in All Categories

Anxiety among mothers is a growing but largely unrecognized crisis. In the transition to mother­hood and the years that follow, countless women suffer from overwhelming feelings of fear, grief, and obsession that do not fit neatly within the outmoded category of “postpartum depression.” These women soon discover that there is precious little support or time for their care, even as expectations about what mothers should do and be continue to rise.

Sarah Menkedick spent her 20s trekking alone across South America, teaching English to recalcitrant teenagers on Réunion Island, picking grapes in France, and camping on the Mongolian grasslands; for her, meaning and purpose were to be found on the road, in flight from the ordinary. Yet the biggest and most transformative adventure of her life might be one she never anticipated: At 31, she moves into a tiny 19th-century cabin on her family's Ohio farm and begins the journey into motherhood.

Is traveling really just an empty accumulation of experiences? Are backpackers any different from tourists? Are independent travelers' assumptions about the meaning of travel inherently flawed? Travel writer and editor Sarah Menkedick explores the meaning of modern travel on a trip across Borneo.