‘He's one of the greatest humans on this planet’: Behind the lifestyle of a digital nomad with a unique perspective on human connection

As I sat on the side of a hiking trail on my first day in a foreign country trying to slow the falling of tears down my cheeks, I was met with the comforting presence of someone I had known for a mere day.

“It’s not meant to be easy,” he told me.

Moments before, I had disgorged the contents of my insides in front of 18 of my classmates from home. To say I was feeling embarrassed would be an understatement. But as I sat there in the dirt under the scorch of the sun, this familiar stranger’s reassurance felt somehow convincing.

Over the next nine days, I would learn that Adam Aronovitz’s unique ability to connect with people, regardless of how long he knew them, reached everyone he met.

Our paths crossed in February 2020, during a week-and-a-half long trip to the Oratorio Platanares district of Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica. There, I lived in a homestay and spent my days assisting students in the local elementary school and building a wall to support an eroding hill. The 10 days I spent there changed my perspective on the world, showed me the beauty in other cultures and the significance of travel.

Adam Aronovitz (center) and my paths crossed in February 2020 during a trip to Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica.

But for Aronovitz, an impactful trip such as this one was the exact experience that inspired his nomadic, travel-centric lifestyle and drive for moving others.

As director of Global Routes, an organization based in Windsor, New Hampshire, that runs international service immersion programs for high school and gap-year students, Aronovitz has dedicated his time to showing young adults the beauty in traveling. That is, when he’s not traveling himself.

Originally from Sudbury, Massachusetts, Aronovitz grew up in a multicultural household: his mother is from Greece, where he spent his summers as a child.

After graduating high school, Aronovitz went to Tulane University in New Orleans, where he received a bachelor of arts in international political economy in 2003. Following graduation, Aronovitz spent half a year traveling around parts of Central and South America before landing in London, to pursue a master of arts in international relations from Westminster University in 2005. From there, he moved back to Massachusetts and worked as a math and science teacher in the Boston Public Schools system for six years.

It was during his time as an educator that Aronovitz first heard of Global Routes from a colleague, who encouraged him to apply to lead a trip with the organization during the summer recess. After his first trip, Aronovitz was hooked.

“I would just be overflowing with all the good things,” Aronovitz said. “I just started loving that work so much and started doing that every summer.”

After leaving his teaching job in 2009, Aronovitz spent the next six years traveling throughout Asia and parts of Africa between leading trips for Global Routes.

During this time of hiatus in his career, Aronovitz found a new way to inspire those he encountered. In 2010, Aronovitz and his former partner Alissa Bilfield founded The Cookbook Project, a food literacy and cooking education nonprofit organization.

“We were trekking in Nepal in the Himalayas—I want to say for two weeks—and we're just coming up with ideas and putting together this curriculum as we were traveling just out of our backpacks,” Aronovitz said.

Through The Cookbook Project, Aronovitz and Bilfield trained community leaders around the world to support communities in making sustainable and nutritious food choices. Nowadays, Aronovitz has transitioned to a consultant role in the company to focus on Global Routes.

In 2016, when Global Routes’s directorial position became vacant, Aronovitz started a new chapter of his career as the organization’s director.

Aside from overseeing a company that runs travel programs, Aronovitz himself does a lot of traveling and has led a nomadic lifestyle for the last decade. For the last year-and-a-half, he has been based in Kehena Beach on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The 40-year-old Aronovitz told me when we spoke via Zoom earlier this year that the Big Island has “probably become my home base.”

“​​I think I’m definitely seeking more stability and some more groundedness and roots as time goes on,” Aronovitz said “I’m having much less drive to just travel for travel's sake.”

By a sociological standard, Aronovitz’s lifestyle is that of a digital nomad, or someone who works remotely in order to focus on travel.

“​I think (living a nomadic lifestyle has) been related to not necessarily feeling the depth of connection that I’m seeking in the places that I’ve been living and because I’m aware of how full life can feel,” Aronovitz said.

Jennie Germann Molz, professor of sociology at the College of the Holy Cross, has done research on the topic of digital nomads. She told me people who follow such a lifestyle are motivated by a thirst for freedom.

“They have a desire to have freedom from the structures of everyday life,” Germann Molz said. “They want freedom from the 9 to 5 lifestyle, they want freedom from the office or from the obligations of living in modern society.”

Despite being distanced from his loved ones due to his untraditional lifestyle, Aronovitz said he spends the time he gets with family and friends in intentional ways.

“Friends that I've had for 25 years from high school or 20 years in college, we don't necessarily need to see each other even every three or four years to maintain really deep connections with each other,” Aronovitz said. “There’s no such thing as an end. It's kind of like pouring a little bit of gasoline on that connection.”

For Aronovitz, connections thrive equally between his personal life and through his work with Global Routes, which introduces him to people all around the world.

During our time in Costa Rica, we built a wall to support an eroding hill.

One such person is Ainslie Leitao, a former high school classmate of mine. Leitao and I were on the Costa Rica trip together, where she also met Aronovitz for the first time.

After we returned from the trip, Leitao opted to take a gap year before going off to college. During that time, she reached out to Aronovitz to go on another trip with Global Routes, leading her to partake in the Hawaii program in August 2021. She spoke highly of her experiences with Global Routes.

“I think everyone, every student in high school, or at some point in their life should go on a trip with Global Routes or something similar, because you just grow so much as a human,” Leitao said. “I think also everyone kind of owes a civic duty to learn more about the world they live in, and Global Routes offers that.”

Beyond her time attending the two programs, Leitao also works as an intern for Global Routes handling administrative tasks for Aronovitz and his colleagues. She said it is a “dream internship” because of Aronovitz’s support.

“He's one of the greatest humans on this planet,” Leitao said. “Aside from just doing a great job directing the company and being a great leader, he's also just a very supportive person, and also a very joyful person.”

Leitao said Aronovitz is the type of person that everyone deserves to meet.

“He is so grateful for every minute he's alive and every minute he gets to share with anyone, and he really makes an effort to get to know everyone who's with him at all times because he truly wants to learn,” Leitao said. “But also he truly wants to make everyone feel loved and appreciated and that's exactly what he does.” 

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story described Global Routes as a nonprofit organization. Global Routes is categorized as a limited liability company under New Hampshire state law. The nonprofit organization Global Routes INC, a Massachusetts 501(c)(3) organization, governs the service projects conducted by program participants and other community development initiatives.