FRISCO, Texas — Frisco two-year-old Max Smith just learned how to walk, but he’s already covered more ground than most.
“The goal was originally to take him to all the states in the U.S. and make him the youngest child to visit every state,” said Max’s mom, Lesley Carter.
Carter loves to travel.
For the past 10 years, she’s shared her adventures on a website she calls Bucket List Publications.
By visiting every state as a baby, Smith would’ve set a world record.
“We were going to drive to all the states and visit them before he was three months old,” Carter said. “But then COVID happened.”
The pandemic put an end to their trip around the country, but as restrictions lifted, Carter discovered a way her son’s milestone could be even bigger.
“Then I started to think, ‘this is something we could do,” Carter said. “This is something we could achieve.”
When they take a cruise to South America and Antarctica in February, Smith will become the youngest North American to visit all seven continents.
He’s played drums in Rwanda, enjoyed the beach in Fiji and done it all before his third birthday.
“I am certain that Max will not remember any of this,” Carter said. “I am 100% certain of that.”
Carter went on to say that her daughter, Smith’s older sister, doesn’t remember traveling as a baby either. Yet, it has profoundly changed her.
“What it has done for her and what it has done for me is it has shaped her into a child that is accepting of everybody,” Carter said. “A more accepting world is a better world. I really truly believe traveling brings that to my children.”
Carter says people don’t have to go to the other side of the world to meet someone different. There are neighborhoods and cultures waiting to be discovered all around.
It’s easy to stay where you are, but it’s rewarding to grow as you go.