Being a Globe Trotter – Anyone Can Do It

Look for Loop Holes

I had already gotten my first taste of international travel the year before, in 2006, when I traveled and volunteered in Ireland. I received a $2,000 scholarship from my local Rotary Club when I graduated from high school. The tricky thing with scholarships is that they often go directly to your school of choice and go against what you would need to take out in loans and can even just be factored into your financial aid package, basically it can end as a wash unless it’s a significant amount of money. Luckily, the Rotary scholarship had a clause that allowed the recipient to get the money directly once you could show proof of having covered your fees for your first year of school. What did I do with that money? Ireland, baby! Volunteers for Peace (when they were based in my hometown) hooked me up with the Sunrise Organic Farm in Ireland. I combined being a tourist with volunteering and spent a month on the island, falling in love with travel. I was the first in my immediate family to travel overseas (although certainly not the last, my sister has been quite the globetrotter herself).

Be Impulsive

The final day was the saddest day. Became sisters or ajee with these ladies.

I sometimes make impulse decisions…okay, I often make impulse decisions. I can’t stand lollygagging around, and unless I’m feeling particularly shy or awkward I do not play the noncommittal game of “I don’t know, should I? Do you want to? Umm…” One of the best impulse decisions I’ve made was to apply for an international internship when I was going to Mount Holyoke College. I found out about it the day before it was due and begged my supervisor to write me a last minute recommendation. I fired off a letter about how badly I wanted to teach abroad and how a full scholarship was the only way I’d get this kind of opportunity. And hot damn, I got the scholarship which sent me overseas to India for the summer in 2007. It was a once in a lifetime experience, but it was in no way parallel to any of my friends’ study abroad experiences. They were touring multiple countries, partying around the world, and most of them were learning a second language. I was sleeping in a cave, going to the bathroom in a hole, washing in a bucket, teaching at a Tibetan Nunnery, in the middle of the Himalayan wilderness. Amazing, life changing, and I would do it again in a heartbeat…but I was working (not playing) and ill with some very serious digestive issues the whole time.

Research Your Options

Archaeology Department at Durham University

Some of Harry Potter was filmed at Durham in the cloisters

I finished up my studies at a different university and didn’t study abroad, because I was always hearing how impossibly expensive it would be. When I graduated from college I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I thought I’d work and get an apartment. Just like most liberal arts graduates I had a difficult time securing full time employment. Unsatisfied with my options, I looked into graduate school options. In my usual manner, I looked for out of the box options. I didn’t want to commit to school for more than a year, I didn’t want to be anywhere I’d lived before, and I still wanted to travel. That’s when I stumbled on Study Across the Pond, which is a free program that helps students from all over the world apply to and attend schools in the UK. There are no fees to apply to most universities in the UK, through Study Across the Pond you get personalized (and free) help on your application, most Masters degrees are only a year long, and they cost less than a two year degree from most US universities. You can still take out federal student loans, and obtain scholarships from schools abroad. It worked for me and I got my Masters degree in Britain and even had enough money left over from loans to travel to other countries in Europe.

Reorder Your Thinking

I make mates with statues all over the world. (Newcastle, England, UK)

Another statue friend (Tallin, Estonia)

If you are stopping yourself from pursuing your dreams because you have already decided it’s impossible, you are thinking about everything in the wrong order. First you must think about what you want to do, then do your research on how to do it, then you must do the proper preparations, and then you have to go for it. If you don’t try you will never know. Are there difficulties? Absolutely. Are there things you really might not be able to make happen? Yes, and I blame no one for that. We all have troubles that can bring us down (god knows I’ve had my fair share). Approach your goals with pragmatism and don’t tie all your happiness to them, but just know that it is possible to step outside of the box and make the impossible come true. I’ve never been a carefree traveler who didn’t have to worry immensely about money, I’ve never stayed at a resort (rarely in nice hotels), and I can hardly afford vacations, but I still move around the world and plan on seeing as much of it as I can. If I can do it, I bet you can too. Don’t think about how you can’t achieve what you want, you must change your thought process and think about what you want and how you can.

I even pal around with statues in Washington, DC.

“Where you come from does matter — but not nearly as much as where you are headed.” [Jodi Picoult]