Let’s face it. The adult world is full of awkward conversations at the water-cooler at the office and waking up to crying babies at five in the morning is approaching quickly for many of us college students. Heeding the warnings of those who come before us, many of us are apprehensive of being tied down by a stable job and family life without the opportunity to satiate our craving to travel and see the world. Often, once we have ties to one place, we are unable to satiate our craving to experience the world outside of our comfort zone, the unknown parts of the world that provide new perspectives and horizons for us. It is for this reason that our college years are the perfect time to travel.

College is definitely a stressful time. Eight a.m. class followed by a three hour lab, followed by meetings and then theater rehearsals is enough to cause insanity, let alone finding time to eat, sleep, and have meaningful relationships with other human beings. If we don’t devote time to finding solace amidst the craze to think outside the box and absorb the world around us, college becomes a process where we just go through the motions, not truly opening our minds to the things we could be learning or experiencing.

Travel is the perfect break to take. When our mind becomes so cluttered with deadlines and equations, travelling is a great way to temporarily clear your mind and experience something new, something engaging that will have a permanent impact on you. This isn’t to say that school is unimportant, because it is extremely important. However, it’s the experiences that you have while travelling that really have an everlasting impact on every aspect of your life, not just occupational.

Travelling can teach just as well as a professor. When you travel, you can learn about history at a museum, biology while canoeing on a lake, literature when you’re reading a novel while the waves touch your toes. Not only does travelling teach academic disciplines, but it teaches us so much more about the inner-workings of life. It teaches us practical knowledge, like how airports work and how to survive around the same people in close, constant quarters for a period of time. It’s these millions of seemingly insignificant little observations and connections that we make while traveling that teach us about the world around us, even if we are just taking a short road trip to the city.

I would say that the most important benefit of travelling in college has nothing to do with becoming smarter or more experienced. It is that there is something special, almost magical, about traveling. Discovering the unknown world sparks a desire to discover the unknown parts of our own self. As we satisfy this wanderlust, we satisfy the lust within our own souls to find ourselves. Leaving home, a place of comfort but constriction, allows us to reflect on who we truly are and mend the parts of us that are broken or empty. While we uncover the secrets of an abandoned sea cave or take the untraveled, dangerously curvy gravel road, we unearth new thoughts and perspectives about ourselves in conjunction with the world around us that can never be realized in a lecture hall of 200 students.

So if college is really about finding yourself and growing in maturity and strength, traveling should be a vital component of everyone’s college experience. So travel abroad, attend and present at conferences, go on spring break trips with your pals. Because if you fulfill your desire to travel during college, you will discover yourself in a relationship with the world that will enhance your entire life. You’ll be able to look back on those amazing college experiences and have no regrets about your time and no regrets about the person you’ve become.