And that's because I've decided to take the advice of countless alumni who I've met with over the past 2 years (as part of my job interviewing alumni for the Alumni Discovery initiative). Each of these people said to me that of all the things they wished they had done post-graduation, no matter the cost/trouble/other opportunities, they WISH they had just taken time to live life without responsibilities and to travel.
So based on the wisdom of countless near-strangers, I've purchased a ticket to Europe where I'm going to spend 3 months of this summer simply traveling around (to wherever the cheapest ticket will take me) all over the continent to explore, enjoy the culture, meet new friends, find new adventures and just experience everything I possibly can.
Before I leave I'll be selling everything I own--literally everything-except for a few pieces of art and my bicycle (it's a really nice bike and the arts original and by my best friend).
From my time living in the international House on campus, I have a number of friends in different countries around Europe, many of whom have welcomed me to come and 'crash' at their place and give me tours of the towns when I manage to get there. Elsewise I plan to couch-serf or stay with any other random people that are nice....or stay at a hostel. Again no intense planning, just feeling it out.
For the first month I have a friend coming with me and she has certain places she'd like to see so we've got a decent route sort of planned out-ish (Ireland-England-France-Switzerland-Italy). From there I am literally going to be booking flights about 7 days ahead of when I'll take them in order to hop to wherever looks interesting that has a low cost.
No plan--no agenda--just exploring. I hope to hit every country in western europe and may explore to central/eastern. It really just depends.
I'm hoping to maybe catch a yoga retreat somewhere while I'm over there...I hear salsa in Paris is awesome...and I really want to experience some rural areas without all the tourist hub-ub.
And that's the plan-to not plan. Probably for one of the first times in my life.
As for my return, I'll be getting back to the states the end of September and have the idea that (for now) I'll come back to San Diego--that just seems to make the most sense. I've looked into a few jobs and opportunities and am putting out a few applications in random places. But honestly I'm not concerned about that, I'm just ready to explore then begin to think about the rest of my life.
Graduation is June 12th here at UC San Diego and I'll be flying out July 13th.
If you have thoughts/suggestions/advice, feel free to shoot me an email or reply on this post!
i'd recommend a "plan" so far as maybe a sketch of where you want to go. I know the idea of just winging it is really romantic...and you can definitely make that work, but you'll also save a lot of money and be able to see more if you have some vague concept of what's next. Talk to K-Lu (this is the nickname I developed for Kristin while in Europe...it has semi-stuck amongst a select few, but I'm not sure she even knows about it...haha). She really wanted to go on a trip and just wing it. I forced her to plan a little. What I gathered during our adventures is that she was pretty happy making the plans we did, for the reasons I listed above...but maybe she was lying to be nice. At any rate, I'm happy to offer whatever advice I can to you...
ReplyDeleteAnd, if you want another opinion from an alumni, you should read my post about "what next" that is soon to be coming to my blog... :)
bon voyage!
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