No, I’m not talking about the Disney show with Zack and Cody that was cool when we were too old to watch it (although we all probably won’t admit that we did). I’m talking about real life. The “suitest” life.

I spent my 2014 fall semester living on a cruise ship traveling the world. 

I spent my afternoons tanning and “studying” by the pool in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by new friends from all over the world. I rode camels and slept in the middle of the Sahara desert in Morocco. I spent four days living in the middle of the Amazon. I swam with sea turtles in Barbados. I climbed the cliffs of Moher in Ireland. I toured the streets of Cuba with students from the University of Havana. I played the drums at a samba school in the favelas of Rio. I experienced the most amazing sunsets you could ever imagine every night at sea. I traveled to 27 cities and 16 countries in four months. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, I thought so too before embarking on the greatest semester of my life.

Semester at Sea is a study abroad program that was founded in 1963. The program is managed by the Shipboard Institute for Education in Charlottesville, Va. The University of Virginia is the current sponsor of the program until the end of the spring 2015 voyage. The vessel that is currently used by ISE is called the MV Explorer. Just picture a small, '70s style cruise ship decked out in tacky, colorful carpet. Oh, how I miss that ship.

The ship began to feel like a home to me, as well as to my friends. It was the place we ate, slept and studied together as we all experienced the most exhilarating four months of our lives.

I truly believe that everyone should study abroad at some point during college. Whether it’s for a few weeks in the summer or for an entire semester, it is such a unique and valuable experience. I have formed some of the most genuine friendships with students from all of the country because of study abroad. The experiences I had while on Semester at Sea are experiences that I will never forget. I feel a lot more prepared to take on the world now that I’ve had just a small taste of it. I have now caught a case of the travel bug and I plan to see a whole lot more of the world in my future travels.

It’s important to see the world while you are young and impressionable. While I was abroad I learned so much about different people and different cultures, and I had my own opinions about the world challenged. I now hold a completely different point of view about my own life and what I want to do with it.

The moral of this whole spiel is to see the world!

I’m not trying to sell Semester at Sea (although I highly recommend it to EVERYONE!) It’s an amazing program that will hold a place in my heart forever. I just want to share the experiences I had and hopefully this will make someone want to create their own! After all, “Travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer.”