The next time you visit a famous tourist spot, take a moment to put down your phone. Look around and observe the facial expressions of all the people around you. Listen to the cadence of their voices. Everyone from different parts of the world but experiencing the same feeling in this one location together. That feeling is fascination. My name is Krystal Aziz, and I am fascinated by this world.
I am blessed to have an amazing father who has worked for United Airlines since I was born. He opened the gates for me to fly to China, France, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Hawaii and many other places. We never stayed in the fancy hotels or ate at fancy places, but we traveled because my father wanted us to be exposed to different cultures, to learn the history behind each destination, and to appreciate other people and their ways of life. We didn’t have a lot of money to spend on tours, so my dad would rent our family a car and either my sister or I would sit in the front seat, the local map in hand, and we would navigate to the places we wanted to see. It was in these moments that I grew my love for packing a bag, flying standby on the next available flight, and just figuring it out as we arrived. I traveled frequently growing up, through high school and college, and I even had the opportunity to study abroad in Dubai.
Traveling is the one thing that completely fills my heart with pure happiness, so when I graduated college with a marketing degree in 2016, I knew my work needed to involve traveling. I had a few friends working for Modern Vacations and Destination Weddings at the time, and they arranged an interview with the owner, Tim Evans. I never really thought about being a travel agent, because as a millennial, I didn’t know anyone that used an agency to book their trips; however, Tim sold me on the company, the job, the culture, and the fact that I would experience luxury travel.
As an agent, you get to oversee the creation of someone’s fantasy trip or their dream wedding. This is something that they’ve probably thought about for years, but now it is in my hands to make a reality. I have loved every moment of it. Even as I broke sales records during my first year with the company, I still asked myself, “How can I improve this? How did I reach this milestone, and how can I share it with my team? How can I be better?” I want to learn everything I can, because I want to be a part of revolutionizing this company and industry with technology, a growth mindset, and inspiration to achieve greatness. When I stood inside of the Great Pyramids in Egypt, as when I rode the gondolas in Venice, looked over Rio from the famous Rio De Janeiro statue, or even snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, I knew I was experiencing something special. 30 countries down, 165 more to go…
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