Student Traveling Through South East Asia Worries Her Parents with Confession

All around the world, It’s pretty common for students to go on a backpacking trip to different places around the globe. In many countries, after finishing high school or college, students go on a ‘gap year’ or on a long trip somewhere in the world. The trip is either a celebration of the next step they’re about to take, or just a way of postponing ‘adulting’. Common places include South America, a Euro trip, Southeast Asia and Africa.This experience was no exception to Dutch student Zilla Van Den Born, but her story had a little twist.

A Travelling Enthusiast

When the Amsterdam native decided to go by herself on a trip to Southeast Asia, she felt absolutely euphoric. She had always wanted to see different places and experience different cultures from around the world, and the Asian continent had always fascinated her.

Ever since she was a young girl, she had decided that as soon as she was able to, Southeast Asia would be her first ever trip. After saving every penny she could, she finally had enough money to go on a six week trip around different places in Southeast Asia.

The Power Of Social Media

She told her family that this would be the trip of her life, and promised to stay in contact on a daily basis through social media. But nowadays, the thing about social media is that it can be a great tool for easy communication with family and friends, but it can also easily distort realities.

Anyone who owns a smartphone has access to tools such as photoshop and editing apps, which don’t always easily share the truth. So while Van Den Born kept her promise and updated her family regularly with breathtaking pictures, they had no idea that she was hiding a really important detail. But eventually, they found the truth behind Van Den Born’s solo backpacking trip.

An Amsterdam Native

Van Den Born was 25-years-old, and was born in Amsterdam. She lived her whole life in the city of bicycles, but managed to travel around the Netherlands quite a bit. The young woman had been drawn to the travelling world since she was a little girl. Her parents recall her sharing how much she wanted to be able to see the world as soon as she was able to.

But her beautiful and young looks were noticed by a model agency when she was only 16, so she started modelling for a number of companies. The gigs were good, and allowed her to save money towards her dream.

Studying Graphic Design

During that time, she noticed that editors constantly edited and modified her appearance before publishing her pictures, and she became completely fascinated with it. This inspired her to study graphic design when she started college. There was something about graphics, photo editing, and perfectioning pictures that was really intriguing for her.

She enrolled in the Art Academy of Utrecht in her hometown. Her studies came easy to her because she was so interested in what she was studying. Her passion only grew stronger by the day, and her skills increased considerably with time. Since her love and yearning for travelling was still there, she decided it was time to combine her two passions.