As I turn 52 years old today, I take a moment to look back and where I’ve been and where I am headed.

“So do you have the best job in the world?” The question was asked by a waitress a few weeks ago in Toscana, the reservations-only restaurant on Oceania Cruises’ Regatta. I was there to photograph a few of the dishes, as I have done on many of the 200-plus cruises I’ve been on during the last two decades as a travel writer/photographer.

I always feel inclined to tell people that I am “on assignment” and not just some potentially weird guy traveling alone. It’s a strange introduction, I know, but I feel so privileged to do what I do for a living that I am almost embarrassed by it. Essentially, for the past 20 years, I have been paid to do something extraordinary: take vacations.

I’m sure there are some who would flaunt that salient fact. Look at me, travel writer, cruising for free. Nanny, nanny, boo, boo. I, on the other hand, often come across as a martyr. “Yes, I have to do another luxury cruise.” And then to make people really feel sorry for me, “I’ll probably put on another five pounds with all the champagne and caviar they throw at me.” The sympathetic among those listening feign a nod of acknowledgement.

Plus, the cruises aren’t exactly free. Yes, I am invited on as a guest to do work, but I often pay for airfare, transfers, laundry, gratuities. It all adds up. There’s no such thing as a free cruise.

Back on Regatta, I had explained to the waitress why I was photographing every dish she placed before me. My message to her was intended to be, “I’m just like you, working on a cruise ship.” And, in fact, that is exactly what I do. I interview, research, write, photograph and produce video probably 90 percent of my waking hours on a cruise. It’s not exactly a vacation, but it’s not a bad office, either.

The motivation for doing all of this began as a selfish one. As a young traveler, I plotted a way to see the world. And so I obtained a journalism degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and spent five years writing for a travel trade publication. With a business partner and friend, I launched Cruise Week, still going strong today, and spent more than 12 years as a travel columnist for United Airlines’ in-flight magazine. I spent time as editor of Porthole Cruise Magazine, and finally, just a few years ago launched my own brand, The Avid Cruiser.

My journalistic goal throughout all those years was a simple one: to create content that helps people make informed vacation decisions. And indeed that is my mission with this  web site: to continue to inform — and let’s face it, to keep me avidly cruising.

But in the end, I’m like that waitress back on Regatta, here to serve, because, of course, I’m not cruising for fun (wink, wink). I’m “on assignment.”