As everyone is stuck inside due to COVID-19, some tend to forget what it’s like to travel and enjoy the outdoors without worrying about their health. Junior Disha Bukkasagaram owns an Instagram account named “dishasodyssey”. On her account, she posts pictures of the places she’s visited with captions explaining the place it was taken, the situation, and sometimes facts about the place. She goes into detail and thoroughly explains her opinion about the scenery and anything she noticed about the setting.  

She gave a general synopsis of the page explaining what the account is, and what it’s meant for. Bukkasagaram said, “It’s an account that allows me to post pictures of places I’ve been, reviews of the places, and other people’s reviews. I want to be able to share my experiences with others who want to travel. I also want to inspire people to try to see all the beautiful places in the world because I know it’s hard for people to travel, so this account allows me to share my experiences with the people who aren’t able to see it themselves.”

The initial thought process behind the account wasn’t followers or likes. Until she was 16, she wasn’t allowed any form of social media. However, she still took pictures of the places she would visit, and luckily her family is incredibly interested in traveling, so she was given the opportunity. Instead of choosing a blog or simply posting pictures, she decided to make an Instagram page, as it allowed her to do both.  

So far, she’s posted pictures from places such as India, Hungary, California, Yosemite National Park, Belgium, and soon to be more. She hopes to be able to go to more places such as but not limited to the Maldives, Switzerland, Scotland, Banff Canada, and Sri Lanka.

“This photo was taken at Shaver Lake, California. We drove up to a part of the lake that most people don’t adventure around, but it is a hidden beauty itself. We set up hammocks and foldable cots at an isolated lookout spot that had the most amazing view and was definitely worth the drive up. To get to the water from the lookout, we had to take a short hike. We carried our belongings down and swam with our stuff on floats across the water to set up our mini camp. The water was a little cold but felt refreshing. We stayed in the water for around 5 hours jumping off rocks and swimming. Shaver Lake is a spot I would highly recommend and I will definitely be going back!”

The text above is an example of one of her blog posts, demonstrating the detail and the description of the photo (above to the right).

Keeping up an entire page dedicated to traveling is hard seeing as traveling is dangerous right now and school is incredibly time-consuming. Bukkasagaram stated, “It’s just hard because I don’t have a lot of time balancing school with my Instagram account and typing up the blog post. I wish I could post more but finding the time is so hard and that’s why I haven’t really posted as often as I’d like to.  

Despite, struggling to find time though, she still has pictures ready to be posted.  To find these, and many more in the future, go to “dishasodyssey” on Instagram. Any pictures, quotes, and captions were all written and photographed by her.