Forget the Mayflower! The Hill’s own Anna Leschen-Lindell ’13 gives the word “pilgrim” a whole new meaning.  Hailing from Falmouth, MA, Lindell spends her time doing everything but staying put. “I try not to stay in this country for more than a couple months in a row,” says Lindell.

Most of us are used to grabbing an occasional lunch on the go, but on the go is a lifestyle for Lindell. “Traveling has always been part of my life,” Lindell said. “My family tries to travel together at least once a year, and we have gone to Costa Rica, and to remote parts of the Yucatan Peninsula. We try to go places that are remote. Getting there is always an adventure, but once we get there, it’s amazing.”

Lindell went to high school at Falmouth Academy, but chose to spend her entire junior year abroad in Germany. “I stayed with a host family, went to the local high school and became fluent in German,” Lindell said. Her Deutschland pursuits seem to have sparked her spirit of adventure and have very much shaped her current lifestyle.

After completing high school in June of 2008, Lindell decided to take a year off before starting her time on the Hill.  In the fall of 2008, she took her first trip to Guatemala, where she volunteered in Guatemala City through a program called “Safe Passage,” which is devoted to teaching English to underprivileged youth. “The biggest challenge on my first visit was learning the language, but once I began to adjust, things got easier,” Lindell said.

After spending the fall in Central America, Lindell visited Brazil. As January came to an end, so did Lindell’s Brazilian escapade. “It was time to move on,” Lindell said.

Lindell devoted the next six months to a solo backpacking trip all around Europe on a budget of about $2500. “I kept my costs low by staying with people that I met during my year abroad in Germany and some other friends,” Lindell said. The trip began in Sicily and she worked her way north to Germany.

During her six months in Europe, Lindell visited Milan, Florence, the Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, France, Holland, Scotland and England. “The trip was amazing, but the language barriers were sometimes tough,” Lindell said. “I remember trying to navigate the train stations in the Czech Republic not knowing the language at all! But it was all part of the adventure.”

As her gap year came to an end, Lindell prepared for her next adventure: Maine. “I was excited to come to Colby,” Lindell said, “but the adjustment to life on the Hill was tough! I had spent the last year not knowing where I was going to be the next week and programming my own days, [and] at school I had a schedule telling me what I was going to be doing every hour.”

As she spent more and more time on the Hill, Lindell knew she had made the right choice. “Colby has given me so many opportunities and has been very good about supporting my desire to explore what lies beyond this campus,” she said. However, it is not all about getting off campus. Lindell is currently a Community Advisor, works in the College’s garden and is looking to become more involved in the pottery club. “I love spending time on campus, Maine is a beautiful place, [and] there is so much out there,” she said.

As Lindell’s first semester at the College drew to a close, adventure called. “I was relieved to find out that JanPlan was a time that I could travel!” she said. Lindell spent her first JanPlan in Ecuador brushing up on her español. Lindell’s time in Ecuador paid off: at the end of her freshmen year she decided to return to Guatemala, and this time, thanks to her much improved Spanish, she was able to help out in a fourthgrade classroom.

As a sophomore, Anna has been working on designing her own major in global and environmental justice in addition to pursuing a minor in education. “I am very interested in the anthropological side of the environmental issue, as well as the injustices of globalization and capitalist expansion. In my major I will be taking some Environmental Science courses, some anthropology courses and some sociology and philosophy,” Lindell said.

Even though Lindell just got back from a sustainable agriculture JanPlan in India, she is already planning her next adventure. “I am hoping to spend my summer in Guatemala and am very much looking forward to my junior year, which I plan on spending abroad pursuing a program called the International Honors Program, which explores how globalization is affecting communities around the world. I am going to be visiting Mexico, Tanzania, New Zealand and Turkey.”

Seize the chance to chat up this seasoned traveler, because with Anna Leschen-Lindell, you never know when adventure will call her away.