Wanderlust. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it simply as "a strong desire to travel." I’ve been stuck in suburbia for as long as I can remember, and I have the biggest case of wanderlust. The hardest thing about my town is that it is right next to the airport. Maybe it’s the planes I see everyday, I’m not sure, but I do know that every time I see one of those beautiful pieces of machinery high in the sky, I can’t stop thinking about all the places I could be instead of being stuck in my suburban town. I just have this strong desire to get away.

John Green calls the type of town I live in a "paper town," and wrote a whole book about it. My town is so flimsy, and could be copied and pasted anywhere in the country and not be out of place. I’m stuck in a paper town with paper people, and I have a strong desire to get away.

I thought college would fix that, but instead it made my urge stronger. I’ve researched program after program that sends students abroad, and I applied. The college town my school is in is paper, and it is way too comfortable. I am so sick of comfortable.

This may sound like I’m complaining, and maybe I am, but mostly I’m hoping other people feel the same way I do. I need a change of scenery. I’ve lived a monotonous life, and I need to change my view.

I need to be inspired. I need to be exposed to more of the hardships in the world, firsthand. I need to understand and be able to fully grasp that there are other cultures besides ours. I need to actually live.

I feel completely and utterly trapped. I feel like I’ve been pigeonholed into a version of me that people have gotten comfortable knowing, and I need to break out of that. I need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. I need change. My suburban friends know one side of me, because that’s all I’m willing to share, because I know that’s what they’re comfortable knowing. I need a new environment to become my entire self, hold nothing back, and just live. I need to get out of suburban towns in order to just be me, and when I come back, I’ll be my full self. I believe there are others out there that feel the same way. I have become so accustomed to only sharing one side of my personality with specific group of people, and it’s hard to break that habit. That habit is comfortable, it’s routine, but like I’ve stated multiple times before, I need to stop being comfortable.

In the fall, I’ll be traveling abroad. I’ll be visiting 12 different countries in 104 days. I’m not only excited to see how I respond to the different cultures I’ll be immersed in, but also how much of my true self will shine. I hope this traveling opportunity will give me the chance to just drink the world in, and become so full of life. I hope I come back and start to inspire others the way I’m hoping other cultures will inspire me.

Traveling is not just about seeing things. It’s about understanding the differences in the world and recognizing how beautiful they are. I can’t wait to see the beauty in the world.