Megan Meets World

Megan Hunsinger is a media production management and technology major at the University of Florida who loves to travel the world. She also happens to be my sorority big, so I get the chance to live vicariously through her adventures. As someone who’s barely even left Florida, I thoroughly enjoy doing this.

Megan’s always been the type of person who prefers experiences, not things. “I like to hang out with people,” Megan said. “I like doing things that let me make memories with people.”

Megan’s been abroad four times in the last five years. Her adventures include Paris, the United Kingdom, Munich, Germany, and, most recently, Spain. Her Spain adventure was a study abroad trip offered through UF’s College of Journalism and Communications, the school that Megan’s major is a part of.

“I like to travel, and study abroad kind of gave me an excuse to do that,” Megan explained. “When you’re a tourist, you only have so much time, and you want to see the big hitters. When you go to Paris, you want to see the Eiffel Tower. But if you’re there for a month like I was for study abroad, you get to see those

things while also seeing the little things.”

And that is exactly what she did.

Home base was in Barcelona, but was torn between Mallorca and Park Güell as her favorite destinations that she got to visit during her down time. Park Güell was at the top of her bucket list for the trip, but Mallorca brought some of her favorite memories and her closest friends.

Mallorca brought Megan the ability to take a sunset cruise down the Mediterranean. During this, Megan got drinks, a whole buffet of Spanish cuisine, and a very cold dip in the water.

“My Mallorca experience was one for the books,” Megan recalled. “It was so surreal. The water was absolutely freezing, but I was one of five people to actually jump in. It was a shock to your body literally, but a shock mentally to stop and realize you’re swimming in clear waters where you can see like, 30 feet down to the bottom and realize that you’re in the Mediterranean.”

But Megan’s adventures are far from over, with another trip to France already booked. Traveling is something that is a personal goal for her moving forward.

“I really want to visit every continent in some capacity,” she explained. “I’ve been very fortunate to be able to go to Europe, but I think to be a better global citizen, going to other places and continents would educate me more about other cultures and places.”

Megan would even like to travel through her job if she could. Travel is something that not every job allows the time for, but some jobs require it. In her eyes, the “coolest” solution to this problem would be working for the Olympics.

If she can have the control of her travels, her top goal is to visit Japan. She would love to experience the cherry blossoms and technological experiences that the country offers.

But until then, she has the memories that she will hold on to for a lifetime (and will be sharing with me every time I ask her to).