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What I wanted to "be when I grew up" first, before anything else, was a football player.

I was three years old when the subject came up. I wore a humongous football helmet around the house and ran with no seeming direction—sometimes in circles, sometimes into walls due to an oversized helmet blocking my vision—whenever a game was on television. But I also wore a mask and bounced on a spring horse when Zorro was on. And acted out every A. A. Milnes character on the stage of my childhood bed when I was read "Winnie the Pooh" bedtime stories. I think I was a doer right from the beginning. Oh, how early we display our unique personalities! Read on…

I shovel turds the size of cantaloupes from the elephants' dirt floor, tossing them, two at a time, over the rails of a tractor-drawn trailer. One potato, two potato, three potato, four—the trailer drives away to some distant compost heap in heaven and returns, empty and thirsty for more sweat and backbreaking work. Read on...

Dreadlocks taught me everything I need to know about natural hygiene. What started out as a hairstyle seven years ago, quickly turned into a lifestyle. My dreadlocks were a golden ticket into new communities—Mendicino hippies, East Village funkier-than-thous and South Caribbean Rastas all welcomed me with winks and open arms. Not because I looked so overwhelmingly cool, but because of the silent understanding that I had transcended social standards, questioned unspoken authority and stopped washing my hair. Read on…

Here’s my final tip on how to drop tourism and really travel:

Tip 6: Give Something Back
The single most important thing you can do to distinguish yourself as a traveler and not a tourist is to give something of yourself. I had been a lifestyle traveler for more than a decade before I discovered a little traveler's secret called volunteer tourism. You can offer your time, energy and manual labor to all sorts of short- to long-term projects run by locals benefiting their wildlife, environment and communities. And please note that volunteering for a preexisting local organization is very different than bringing your (foreign) organization's objectives and volunteering to force them on another culture. I recommend searching the Global Vision International website for wildlife, environmental and cultural volunteer opportunities in the region of the world you are planning to visit. Read on…

Here are two more ways to help you drop tourism and really travel:

Tip 4: Seek Out Cultural Arts, Sites and Ritual
The community theatre production I attended on Grand Bahama Island was just as rich in entertainment and cultural appreciation as the Ballet Folklorico performance I attended in San Salvador. You do not have to pay to participate in many cultural events, but if you have a few extra dollars, experiencing a Japanese tea ceremony or Bunraku performance while in Japan will awaken an understanding of the culture that remedies any desire to Think You Know Better. Read on…