When I was a freshman in college, I received an incredible opportunity to travel to Greece and Italy for two weeks. I learned about the culture, the languages, the food, and more importantly, I learned about my visceral love for traveling. I could not get enough of the flying, the new places that I had never seen before, the beautiful countries full of people who were so different from me and yet still the same. I learned more about myself in those two weeks than I ever learned before.

I spent the next two years drafting the perfect plan to study abroad in Europe for my senior year and re-experience the love and compassion I have for traveling. I plan on living with a host family in Seville, Spain so that I can really immerse myself within the language and the culture. I plan on spending at least a month before, or after, my semester and backpacking Europe alone and really finding myself. As I said before, I learned more about myself in two weeks than I ever did before so I cannot even imagine what I will learn from my experiences that I will gain in countless cities throughout Europe.

I read a book at one point called the “Happiness of Pursuit” which really put in perspective for me what my purpose in life would be and how to achieve my goals. I wish to immerse myself in adventure, lose myself along the way, find myself again, and engage myself into all the numerous cultures throughout the diverse continent that is Europe. I hope to gain bits of knowledge from every place I visit and redefine what it means to be me. I know that sounds cliche, but I feel as if there is no way to seriously figure out who you are if you have not experienced everything there is in life and one of those things for me is traveling.

The word most people use for what I have is “wanderlust”, but that is too vague for what I feel. I feel like I am meant for something more. I feel like I am meant to travel the entirety of Europe and learn all I can about myself. I feel like I am meant to learn the Spanish language fluently along with the vast culture of the Spanish people. I feel like I am meant to come back and use my knowledge for the betterment of everyone around my future students and me. The only thing left is just to do it.