This Richland native travels the world for a living. It's been a roundabout journey

Working on a cruise ship that sails around the world is a pretty good gig, if you can get it.

Hanford High School graduate Amanda Bogen knows all about that. At 25 years old, she's an assistant cruise director for Holland America Line, and has visited 43 countries on five continents since beginning the job in September 2016.

"I didn't even know that a job like this existed," said Bogen, who called from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Wednesday. "I had a friend that worked on ships and he said, 'You get paid to travel the world. Come check this out.' And so I did, and now I'm hooked."

Bogen, who graduated from Hanford in 2011 (she also attended Liberty Christian) will return home to Richland this weekend for the first time in eight months.

"I'm really excited to see my family, but I love my job too," Bogen said. "It's always bittersweet."

Since January, she's been aboard the MS Amsterdam for a grand world voyage.

The once-in-a-lifetime experiences Bogen has racked up recently are tough to tally. Her ship passed over 0 latitude, 0 longitude — a spot in the Gulf of Guinea where the equator and prime meridian intersect — which was cause for a major celebration, and last month while in South Africa she got to meet famed anti-apartheid and human rights activist Desmond Tutu, who Bogen showed around the ship.

"I couldn't get any pictures with him, but I shook his hand, I got to talk to him," Bogen said. "I told my grandma about it and she thought that was absolutely amazing, because he's a phenomenal guy and did a lot of great work during apartheid."

Usually just spending a day or two at a time playing tourist in any number of fascinating foreign lands, Bogen said it was tough to decide which stop has been her favorite thus far, but added that her experience in Bali, Indonesia, ranks among the best.

"We had an overnight there, so my friends and I rented a villa," she said. "It was nice to just have a night out. Bali is beautiful and the people there are so kind, like the nicest people in the world."

Bogen's younger sister, Leah Mercer, will sometimes work in the kids' programs aboard ships. She's wasn't on the MS Amsterdam's voyage with Bogen, but the siblings have cruised to Alaska, Bermuda, New England and the Panama Canal together.

"The highlight of my job is getting to work with (Leah)," Bogen said.

Bogen won a state championship with the Hanford High cheerleading team, then earned a scholarship to cheer for four years at Morehead State University in Kentucky.

Before beginning her job with Holland America, Bogen returned to the Tri-Cities and taught taekwondo — a martial art she said she's practiced almost her entire life — instructed acroyoga classes and served as the gymnastics coordinator for Hanford's cheer team. She indulges in similar practices while at sea, as she coordinates activities and teaches fitness classes aboard the ship.

Bogen graduated from Morehead State in 2015 with a degree in business. She said she's not sure what she wants to do in the future, but is having plenty of fun while figuring it out in the meantime.

"I think I want to do this for maybe five more years while I'm young and nothing's tying me down, no kids, no husband or anything," she said. "It's really easy to just pick up and travel.

"This is the best job. If you ever get bored of working on land, there's literally every position you can think of on a cruise ship."

This story was originally published April 27, 2018 at 5:03 PM with the headline "This Richland native travels the world for a living. It's been a roundabout journey."