While I do admit to spending many days typing away on my laptop in the comfort of my cozy apartment accompanied by a nice "cup of joe," it astounds me how some people can’t bear to go outside! I have friends who haven’t left the country, who haven’t even left the state they were born in. The world has so many wonders to offer and in my opinion, we need to embrace it, appreciate it and do everything possible to explore it! I’m not talking about taking expensive trips every other week and staying in luxurious hotels (even though that would be nice). I’m talking about going outside and getting to know the simple beauties nature has created.

As a full-time student trust me, I understand money and time can be tight, but we have to seize any chance we can get to get up and get out. It doesn’t matter if you go backpacking in South America or just visit some of your local beaches that you’ve never been to before.

So if traveling is as easy as getting in your car and taking a short road trip to a site you’ve never been to before, why don’t most people do it? What stops people from enjoying the beauty of the outdoors? Is it social media, or the fear of the unknown? What I’ve found is that people are either not comfortable with themselves enough that they need the companionship of someone else and the thought of being alone scares them, or they’re too fixated on their day-to-day scheduled lives to stop and take a second to appreciate their surroundings. All I have to say about that is we are our own person; we need to learn independence and to not be afraid of being alone. If someone judges you for diving into a book at the beach on your own, then you officially have given them power over you. Why let other's thoughts and opinions stop you from going out and living your life?

Take myself for example -- I do admit, I am no extrovert, but in recent events I’ve decided it's time to get out of my comfort zone and go somewhere I’ve never been before. I started out small with camping at different state parks around Florida, starting from the Keys all the way to Tallahassee. You’d be surprised at all the different things you can do at a park: snorkeling, hiking, kayaking, fishing and enjoying some s'mores at a bonfire you created. I’m proud to say I’ve been to states other than Florida now, and even spent a short period of time exploring London in the UK.

At the moment, I’m surrounded by water colored the bluest of blues, to the left I can't miss the pine trees that easily tower over any tree I’ve ever seen before and to the right are mountains, some still covered by snow brought by the winter time. I would have never seen this in Florida. I’m currently writing this surrounded by the beauty of Lake Tahoe, a place where last year I wouldn’t have seen myself at because I thought school and traveling wasn’t a good idea and that to be successful I had to be stuck in a library all 24 hours of the day. Then I realized -- studying in a different setting isn’t going to change anything. So if I want to travel I will. I bring my laptop, work and school books with me and take care of my responsibilities while visiting the places I want to visit and exploring the sites I want to explore. Yes its great to be accompanied by your friends or family, but not everyone is going to do what you want to do, or go where you want to go, and that shouldn’t stop you from exploring the places that interest you. If you want to go on a trip, then go. It’s your life and you need to live it the way you want to. The sense of personal accomplishment is like no other feeling.

Especially in tense times, all we need is a break from work, a break from stress and instead of focusing about political views and disasters going on around us, we need to go out and appreciate the world while we have the chance. Our Earth has so many fascinating things to offer form lakes and various bodies of water to mountains and canyons that are waiting to be explored.

We're given one life and it's pretty short when you take into account how huge the world is, but in the one lifetime you have, don’t you want to be able to tell stories about the places you’ve been and the things you’ve seen?

While there are tons of excuses you can give yourself as to why you only know the city you live in, I urge you to just step outside. Look how beautiful the leaves are on the trees when they’re blown by the wind or listen to how peaceful the waves crashing on the shore can be. What’s fascinating is that nature is unique in every part of the world and you’re never going to get to see those differences while stuck at home. So are you going to be the person who goes out and lives or the person who waits until it’s too late?