When You Have the Travel Bug but You’re a Broke College Kid

I can’t remember an age where I didn’t have a bucket list or constantly get caught daydreaming in class about the beaches in Fiji, the Mountains of Nepal, the Wine in the South of France or the hidden temples of South East Asia. I have always said that my ideal life was jetting from one place to another and hopping on planes. I don’t need a fancy car or fancy clothes (although I wouldn’t say no), I just want to travel and eat good food. I have been blessed with family who have been all over and maybe that’s why I feel like I’m missing out. I always feel so restless and torn between being incredibly ambitious and getting a Masters, MD, PhD—and just quitting after my undergrad and taking jobs anywhere I can.

I just recently went on my first vacation as an adult (without my parents and paid for entirely by me) with my two best childhood friends. We went on a huge hiking and camping trip to Utah’s Mighty Five national parks (more in a later post) and it was truly just so freeing, exciting, humbling, awe-inspiring and incredible. We fought and laughed and got sick but had the best time of our lives. Then I couldn’t help planning my visit to one best friend in Hawaii and another who will be studying abroad in Buenos Aires next spring. Then I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to visiting my college friends in Thailand and seeing my Uncle in Singapore, and travelling to China and Japan with my Grandfather.

There is just SO much to see and experience in the world and I cannot help but feel that although I am so young, I fear there are places to see that will be gone before I get the chance like Maldives, the Great Barrier Reef, wild animals on Safaris-even just Shanghai and other beautiful places that are slowly becoming too commercialized.

For now I will continue to daydream and save as much money as possible and eventually I will be able to think of a reasonable goal like doing one huge trip once a year??? Reasonable???

Someone help a fellow daydreamer with a burning sense of wanderlust. How can I travel for cheap? Where to travel before it’s gone? Deal with the fact I’m stuck in one place for a few more years?

For now I will continue to daydream and throw pennies in my mason jar.