"Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life."

-Michael Palin

Ah, the travel bug--the "best bug that could bite." Lately, I've known this "illness" very well. Before recently though, I never really had the intense desire to go anywhere. I always loved going on vacation and still saw places and thought they would be beautiful to view in person, but not until last summer did the travel bug really bite me. Almost a year ago, I went on a 10 day trip after graduation with my high school Latin class to Athens, Greece, Sorrento, Italy, and Rome. Now, don't get me wrong, I was dreaming of this trip since my freshman year of high school when I learned about it and I'd always wanted to go to Italy, especially.

Once I was actually in Europe for the first time, I was in complete shock. I knew it was beautiful and different than anything I'd ever seen before in the US, but it was totally breathtaking. Nothing will ever compare to the view I saw from the top of the mountains in Capri.

Thinking about that trip makes me miss it so much. It was only 10 days, but it gave me a lifetime of memories. What it also gave me was the worst case of the travel bug EVER. Now that I've seen a tiny little part of Europe, every fiber in my being wants to go back to experience more of it. It's like once you've seen it you'll never have enough. I have countless Pinterest boards about countless different aspects of traveling, including countries all over Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and everywhere in North America that I haven't been to yet. I feel like I know everything about half the countries in Europe just because I've read so much about them online. I even applied (and got accepted to!!) a study abroad program in London for this coming January so I can continue to see Europe, but this time, a different part. And even though it's still eight months away, I've started planning everything in the hopes that I can do/see as much as I possibly can in one month.

I just want to be able to see as much as I possibly can of beautiful Earth that God has created in my lifetime. And as I tell people this, they reply with the statement that I am young and have little responsibilities so therefore this is the time to travel and see everything that I want to see. Yes, that is true, but I am also at the age where I have very little money, and very little time to even make more money. Since this is a predicament that many people like me face, I have decided to search the internet for a way to see the world for very little money. Basically, it seems that the way to go is studying abroad through your university, volunteering abroad, or living/working abroad after college.

No matter what route you choose, I wish you happiness in your travels and a cure to your case of the travel bug, if there is one (there probably isn't). I guess, even greater than the travel bug, we all have extreme Sehnsucht: a wishful longing and yearning in the heart for travels that have been and travels to come. Because lately, I am just not content with staying where I am. I want to see, experience, and feel completely new things because as corny as it sounds, if I don't I will only have read one measly page of the book that is life. I want to read more than that, and I have a big bucket list. I just pray that I will be afforded a life that will allow me to check it all off.