This article was originally published on Twenty-Something Travel
So already I am yelling at you to “go see the world! NOW!” which may be a little presumptuous since I don’t even know you and you know nothing about me. So a little background:
I am a girl who just can not sit still.
I mean, I can sit still long enough to watch a movie or read a novel (I always have time for a good book). On the grander scale however, if I’m stuck in one location for too long my restless heart starts pounding impatiently. I may be only 24 but there is a lot of life and world out there to see and it’s not hanging out in the four gray walls of some little cubicle.
I’ve spent some time studying, working and traveling abroad, and I’m hoping within the next year to launch another ambitious backpacking trip around the world. This is a major life priority. I never feel as alive as I do exploring an unknown city or waking up in a new bed.
When I tell people of my travel plans, I already know I’m going to hear one of the following two things, over and over and over:
- “Wow, you are so lucky!”
- “I could never do something like that”.
This always perplexes me. A trust fund would make me lucky. Relatives who lived abroad that I could stay with would be lucky. A job that sent me places, that would be extremely lucky. I don’t have any of those things, and while I am lucky in many other respects (good friends, good family) the only kind of luck you need to go traveling is the kind you create for yourself.
I think that as young people starting out in the world we constantly receive this message that we need to be focused on our careers, looking for our spouses and generally living our life like we are in some kind of race to the finish line of success. It doesn’t have to be like that. Your twenties are the perfect time to see the world, for so many reasons. And the rewards, though often intangible, will follow you throughout your entire life.
Hopefully this blog will both encourage you to get out there, even if only for a couple weeks at a time, and will give you the tools you need to navigate the big blue world.
