By Jennifer Carter   August 26, 2010

I have never been anywhere.

Except to Alaska, which I will tell you about later.

My ancestors got to travel a little. They got into a tiny ship called the Mayflower and spent several grueling weeks on the high seas to America. The following generations didn't travel. They all lived in the same towns, married one another, had children and died. My mother was the first generation to leave New England.

Eighteen generations later, here I am, age of 46: stuck in a city with the largest International airport anywhere, having gone no where. To make matters worse, I'm an artist and writer who never got to Europe. That's sacrilege, really.

I live in Atlanta. My father took a job here and that's where we ended up. For my mom's sake, we made a yearly pilgrimmage to the motherland New England and that's about it.

How, with travel being so affordable, have I managed to avoid it for so long? For starters I come from a family of kind do-gooders without money to spare. Owning a dryer was my mother's dream. Flying off to Paris was out of the question.

I married a salesman and listened to tales of his adventures for 13 years. He traveled, I kept the home fires burning. The one exception was our trip to Alaska. When I discovered that some of his travels involved a certain " companion" of the female variety, I struck out to build a new life. Making ends meet became my preeminent concern. Like my mother before me, the dream of Paris evaporated.

My life leaves no room for serious complaint. I have food, clothing, shelter and comfort. The one thing I can complain about is a gross lack of travel and, indeed, of adventure in my life. Everyday I sit in my office and read as my friends on Facebook cavort all across the globe. I'm not ashamed to tell you that I'm envious. The person I'm most envious of entered this contest. He owns a travel company and has constant access to trips mere mortals like myself only dream of.

All I want is a chance to get out of Atlanta and see the world before I am too old. You can make that possible. I promise that the blogs about my adventures will be well worth your vote.