Getting a job right after college is great. Jobs challenge you, develop your knowledge base, and force you to finally wake up at the same time as the majority of people in the United States of America.
But jobs also come with rigid hours. And there's a minimum number of hours you must work each year. And you have to save up special vacation hours that, after working for many hours, you may use (sparingly) on travel.
This is frustrating, on account of travel can teach you things that a job never will. Here are seven journeys to take now, before you get a job and it's too late.
1. Go backpacking
Very few employers are interested in lending you three weeks to wander aimlessly, explore the greater universe, and "find yourself." Do it now.
2. Travel with your family
It's already hard enough to get everyone together, but when you have a job it's going to be even tougher to coordinate. Make the sacrifice today, say goodbye to "Family Guy" for a weekend, and spend time with the people who shaped you into the human that you are.
3. Stay in hostels
Those rickety bunk beds lose their appeal once you've got the income to feasibly pay for a three-star hotel. Embrace hostels now, because they happen to come with a group of hilarious, wild, fun fellow twentysomething wanderers who could very well wind up being your best friends.
4. Visit friends in their hometowns
You may think you know your friends from college, but nothing helps you understand a person like touring her town, exploring her childhood bedroom, and eating dinner at her family's table. You'll leave with a whole new comprehension of why she holds the beliefs she does (and why she hates Brussels sprouts so much).
5. Subscribe to last-minute deals sites-- and actually use them!
Spontaneity is a luxury that goes out the window with a nine-to-five. One day very soon, you'll be stuck wistfully scrolling through lists of cheap flights instead of packing your bags and hopping on one.
6. Take a service trip
Take one now, when real life is relaxing and you can afford for a trip to feel like work. A service trip is possibly the most enriching experience you can have as a traveler, and the new worldview you develop might be that critical tool which prevents you from accepting a cubicle job you hate.
7. Go on spring break one more time
...Because you're not going to look like you're 22 years old forever.
Related
