Heather Connolly was born in the Lake Arrowhead Mountains of California, but moved to the beaches of San Diego at the age of fifteen. After high school graduation she immediately embarked upon her first solo international adventure. With an oversized backpack, her surfboard and a bravado that only comes with naivety, she spent the summer exploring the lush landscape of Costa Rica. It was during that formative experience she began to understand the paramount value of travel. It wasn't just the opportunity of seeing something new; it was that with every journey there were serendipitous friendships made and during these incredible exchanges of information and anecdotes of astonishing exploits, her trip was brought to life as the itinerary began to change daily. It was in the inevitable vulnerability and humility that accompanied each day of travel that awoke something in Heather. In those precious moments of silence and introspection she got to know herself separate from everything and everyone she'd ever known. Having the rare opportunity to walk in the footsteps of someone else that maintains a different system of values brought her to analyze her own beliefs and emerge with a new outlook and appreciation for her abundant blessings. She found that in the breaking of habits that the comforts of home were stripped away, and as she watched her mind and body organically adapt to new routines, she felt as though she was experiencing a rebirth. After extending her trip to just three days before she was due to begin her studies at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, she returned home with a broader perspective and an insatiable need to begin planning her next trip.

Since, Heather has put her efforts into juggling a life filled with travel and a burgeoning career. She has worked as a teacher both abroad and at home, a manager for her family's seventy year old company and finally in the Series Development department at MTV Networks. Through these experiences she acquired patience, entrepreneurship and a means of capturing her creativity. Each of these challenges filled in a piece of the puzzle that would lead her to take the plunge into the next great journey. Embarking on a project like "My Unbeaten Path" has enabled Heather to combined her love of writing and photography with the desire to share the significance of travel with those whose path she crosses. Her goal of making this planet a little smaller by means of creating an international network of like-minded travelers juxtaposed over an itinerary of amazing festivals will bring this vision to life. This year she will travel to over 30 countries, on a path created to illuminate, expose, entertain, and educate. These festivals are a marriage of past and present, celebration and revelry, devotion and debauchery. If Heather can encourage just one person to alter their course and attend one of these events, and by default engaging in the experiences they're sure to have outside of the celebrations, she feels she would have succeeded.