We all think we can be travel writers if we just had more time to travel. After all, schoolteachers have asked us to write “what I did on my summer vacation” for years. So what's so hard about doing it again?

Truth is, sharing your experiences in a meaningful and entertaining way is pretty darn tough. Believe us—we wade through hundreds of letters and emails that, frankly, you don't want to read. Meanwhile, we’re looking for the next great travel writer—someone who has an original way of seeing the world and bringing it alive on the page or the screen.

So give us a great story and we'll give you a great trip—and, perhaps, a new career.

We’re asking students all over North America to send us a 300-word essay on a travel experience that moved you, excited you or changed you. The author of the winning essay will travel on assignment to Mongolia with National Geographic Traveler’s Editor-in-Chief Keith Bellows, courtesy of Travcoa. Even better, the winner will have his/her story published on the National Geographic Traveler website.