A lot of people say it is a good idea to have a plan. When you are hopping from
east to west and back you start to realize that they might be right.
But maybe the idea of not having a plan works better for you because
then you meet that girl at a station in the middle of a town nobody has heard of.
Or you meet that cool person on a plane you decided to take last minute to Romania. I had
the opportunity of a lifetime to live all over Europe this summer. I loved walking down the old streets while every other person I saw wore an I <3 NY t-shirt. I even enjoyed being harassed by the taxi drivers who never gave up their persistent hustle to coax a fare out of me, even when you said you were taking a bus. There was a variant in cultural aspects that defined countries apart, just as
the very spoken language in a place established an identity. The experience of
hanging with locals was my favorite part. One friend who introduced me to the everyday
life of a Dane, gave me a place to stay in his crappy dorm room and his deflated bean bag chair he called the, “honorable guest bed.” But I didn’t complain as there was always an abundance of ice cold beers we enjoyed through the night. I never knew what heaven was like until then. It certainly was a dramatic contrast from a few nights before. The last few days I had spent hitchhiking and bus hopping, building tents in the backyards of strangers houses who had no idea of me or my tent's presence in their backyard as I always made it a practice not to sleep late. My only trace were a few holes in their manicured lawns and a thank you note I always politely left with a smiley face where the impression of my tent made.
My perspective as an individual now has changed from these sort of life-changing events.
I’ve realized the importance of looking instead of rushing by without observing thanks to leaving my home nest and seeing how others survive in the world.
Observing the old gypsies traversing century old cobblestones, begging on
the streets led me to ponder, "how am I so lucky that I can spend 3
months wherever and however I please?" I had no answers, yet I still wished I had stayed even longer.
Overall this experience of traveling and coming into contact with many different people helped me to decide what I want to be through life. Before summer started,
I had been registered to take 12 credits for next fall worth of computer science classes
which I had no interest in. But in the midst of the last 3 months abroad, I met a Canadian
student who after telling about my goals in creating a million dollar app, he laughed
and then asked me a profound question: "considering the chances of that happening, do you really want to do this until you are 65?" So aghast I thought about it and realized I didn’t. Now I have chosen to study media. Maybe these skills will give me a possibility to continue traveling while finding employment in the media field.
east to west and back you start to realize that they might be right.
But maybe the idea of not having a plan works better for you because
then you meet that girl at a station in the middle of a town nobody has heard of.
Or you meet that cool person on a plane you decided to take last minute to Romania. I had
the opportunity of a lifetime to live all over Europe this summer. I loved walking down the old streets while every other person I saw wore an I <3 NY t-shirt. I even enjoyed being harassed by the taxi drivers who never gave up their persistent hustle to coax a fare out of me, even when you said you were taking a bus. There was a variant in cultural aspects that defined countries apart, just as
the very spoken language in a place established an identity. The experience of
hanging with locals was my favorite part. One friend who introduced me to the everyday
life of a Dane, gave me a place to stay in his crappy dorm room and his deflated bean bag chair he called the, “honorable guest bed.” But I didn’t complain as there was always an abundance of ice cold beers we enjoyed through the night. I never knew what heaven was like until then. It certainly was a dramatic contrast from a few nights before. The last few days I had spent hitchhiking and bus hopping, building tents in the backyards of strangers houses who had no idea of me or my tent's presence in their backyard as I always made it a practice not to sleep late. My only trace were a few holes in their manicured lawns and a thank you note I always politely left with a smiley face where the impression of my tent made.
My perspective as an individual now has changed from these sort of life-changing events.
I’ve realized the importance of looking instead of rushing by without observing thanks to leaving my home nest and seeing how others survive in the world.
Observing the old gypsies traversing century old cobblestones, begging on
the streets led me to ponder, "how am I so lucky that I can spend 3
months wherever and however I please?" I had no answers, yet I still wished I had stayed even longer.
Overall this experience of traveling and coming into contact with many different people helped me to decide what I want to be through life. Before summer started,
I had been registered to take 12 credits for next fall worth of computer science classes
which I had no interest in. But in the midst of the last 3 months abroad, I met a Canadian
student who after telling about my goals in creating a million dollar app, he laughed
and then asked me a profound question: "considering the chances of that happening, do you really want to do this until you are 65?" So aghast I thought about it and realized I didn’t. Now I have chosen to study media. Maybe these skills will give me a possibility to continue traveling while finding employment in the media field.
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