Globetrotter

A lot of people travel the world. Renee Bruns went to 66 countries in 2022. In a wheelchair.

ATLANTA - Last year, Renee Bruns, a former Fortune 500 executive, took a sabbatical from work and set off on a mission to prove to those with limitations that the unimaginable is possible.

Just a few weeks ago, Bruns learned her name has been etched in the pages of Guinness World Records for visiting the most countries in a single year with a wheelchair. She sojourned in 66 countries in 2022, bringing the total number of countries she's now visited to 117 and continents seven.

Bruns, who graduated from Marion Local High School in 2002, was elated upon receiving confirmation of the feat. But upon further reflection, Bruns realized that above all else, her travels across the world have brought her closer to humanity.

"When I first started it I thought it was just all about the award," she said. "When I look back on it, I mean of course I'm grateful for the award … but I think the experiences I've had in the past year are so much more meaningful than the award itself, kind of an unexpected surprise."

The cumulative effect of her wanderlust has been nothing short of life-affirming.

"We all want the same basic things," she said. "We get so wrapped up in politics and religions and countries and culture and if we just sit back and listen to each other we're more alike than what we realize."

Early diagnosis

Bruns was born with skeletal issues that led to an initial diagnosis of diastrophic dwarfism, she said.

"We travelled all over the country, went to all sorts of physicians and got a diagnosis based on physical attributes but at the time the DNA was inconclusive," she said.

The condition impacts her joints, mostly her knees and hips.

"So I have a lot of arthritis. I actually have a double hip replacement so my hips are artificial and I can't walk because of that. So I use a wheelchair permanently," she said.

Bruns was about six or seven years old when she started using a wheelchair all the time.

"It came very young, before I even had an awareness that I was different, and my parents (Ron and Roslyn Bruns) always wanted me to be a contributing member of society," Bruns said. "From their standpoint they did as much as they possibly could and even then some to make sure that I had as normal of a life as I could."

In particular, Bruns remembered her mother assuring her daughter that she would get an education and have a fulfilling career and everything that comes with it.

"I had the support of my family and the community to say, 'You are going to be like one of us even though you're a little bit different and we expect just as much out of you as anyone else,' and I've lived that way," she said.

Bruns said though she couldn't compete athletically, she was an active member of the band and took 10 years of piano lessons, playing at the church and local events. She also took her academic studies seriously and graduated ninth in her class.

"I had the most amazing group of friends growing up. They stuck with me all through elementary school, junior high, high school," she said. "Just a phenomenal group of friends. The community was very supportive."

Bruns went on to earn her undergraduate degree from Ohio Northern and her master's in business administration from Capital University. She was fully independent and able to do most things on her own though there were a few challenges she had to overcome.

"It was the first time somebody had gone to Ohio Northern using a wheelchair so not all of the buildings had ramps or elevators," she said. "They worked really, really well with me."

After earning her degrees, Bruns worked in property and casualty insurance, bouncing around the country from California to North Carolina and then Atlanta, Georgia.

Desire to travel

Bruns traces her preoccupation with travel to a few key childhood experiences.

When she was 5, Bruns and her mother flew to New York City to see a specialist.

"I remember being on the flight up in the air, looking down and feeling so small because we start to see how big the world really is and then getting to New York City which was very different than the environment I had grown up in," she said.

Bruns thought the world was so big, she just had to see more of it.

She also recalled another defining moment that occurred while studying geography in the third grade.

"I remember very clearly this big map in the schoolroom of the United States and all the different states and I came home and told my parents, 'I want to see all 50 states someday.'"

Her parents helped make that dream a reality. Every summer they hitched a camper to the back of their van and took off to see a different part of the country. By the time Bruns was 16, she had seen all 50 states.

Bruns said she was 25 when she went on a European cruise with family and friends. From there, she went into hyperdrive, realizing she could possibly see the entire world if she wanted to.

Having limited vacation time at work, Bruns would plan her trips over holidays and weekends.

"I would go to about two or three places a year," she said.

Going for a record

In 2022, Bruns decided to dedicate her entire year to travel - and setting a new Guinness World Record.

"In May of 2022, I left my job and I said, 'I'm going to travel for one year, that's all I'm going to do,'" she said. "I'm just going to travel. I'm going to see all the places I can."

Bruns said she mapped out her journeys a month at a time.

"I didn't want to have the whole year planned out out of fear that I might get burnt out or maybe I really loved the place and I wanted to stay longer," she explained.

Bruns largely ventured out on her own and relished discovering off-the-beaten-path locales such as coffee shops, where she would strike up conversations with locals to glean recommendations for sightseeing, cuisine and drink.

"I usually go on my own," she said. "There are a few places where I will have a tour depending on where I'm at just from a safety standpoint or if I want some more history where a tour guide might be able to give me history. But I typically like to go out of my own."

Bruns rattled off a list of countries and continents that struck her fancy.

"I absolutely love South Pacific. There's a ton of little islands out there … and they're all different countries. It was phenomenal. It was beautiful. The people are just lovely," she said. "I also really enjoyed the 'Stans.' So, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan - very, very different than any place I've ever visited before. But again, the people were amazing."

She found the Middle East to be the most intriguing of places.

"That part of the world has really taught me to remove my biases and just listen," she said. "You're going to learn something. So I've been able to take that back with me into the U.S. where we have such a political divide and so much hate and division."

Throughout her odyssey, Bruns was often approached by people wanting to practice their English with an American.

"They're wanting to learn my language. They're just embracing every minute of it," she said. "I was so grateful that they would sit and talk with me."

The people she encountered often had questions about the United States, especially pertaining to its politics, she said. They shared concerns about gun violence and racial issues of all types.

"I was in Asia. They're afraid to come to our country because they are afraid of being assaulted or being in a place where there's a mass shooting," she said. "People that are Middle Eastern, you can imagine how they feel. Same thing. There's a lot of concerns about the diversity that we say we have and they're seeing differently when they read the news."

Still, the United States remains a sought after beacon of freedom and opportunity in the eyes of many she crossed paths with overseas.

"There's opportunity here," Bruns said. "The No. 1 thing that they say is there's jobs, there's money, there's opportunity, and I think opportunity can mean a lot of things."

While it was disappointing to hear people express their fears about violence and discrimination in the United States, Bruns said she also gained a new appreciation for the freedoms she enjoys as an American - the freedom to speak freely, secure a job and reap the financial benefits, vote and travel.

"Just traveling on a U.S. passport I can go to virtually any country. There's a handful that I can't go to," she said.

Next stops

Having just recently received news of her Guinness World Record, Bruns is on the verge of an even greater revelation - an updated diagnosis of her condition.

"A lot of doctors have really questioned if that's (diastrophic dwarfism) accurate which is why I'm going through the process now to have my DNA reevaluated," Bruns said. "Now that the human genome sequencing project is done, I'm in the process of having my DNA re-evaluated again to see if we can get a formal diagnosis."

For the longest time Bruns said she never really thought having a precise medical name for her condition would make much of a difference. But she's now at the point where it could provide closure - and possibly community.

"If I can get a name for it that's very official (I would) be able to reach out to other people who might have that same diagnosis and build that community with them because I haven't had that so far. I'm really kind of just walking around on my own," she said. "I feel like I'm missing a community of people that might be like me."

Bruns at the time of the phone interview was preparing to leave for Australia and Indonesia. She also fired off the names of other countries she hopes to reach in the near future.

"High on my list is Madagascar, near the southern tip of Africa, and I also want to go to Saudi Arabia," she said. "(Traveling's) going to be a part of my life for sure for as long as I'm physically able to which hopefully that's a long time."