Traveling is cappuccinos and freshly baked bread and jam. It’s being stranded at train stations when you get off at the wrong stop. Its hostels filled with young people trying to find out who they are. Its drunk games of bocce ball in France and laying in the grass underneath the Eiffel tower eating a ham crepe.

Traveling is believing you have what it takes to experience this world. Its discovering that the girl you’ve known since middle school is actually the person you’ve been searching for all along. Its tight embraces and happy tears, daytime naps and scoops of gelato. Its calling your dad to tell him you’re still alive and you’re the happiest you’ve ever been. But more than anything else, travel is soul searching. It doesn’t discriminate, it emancipates.

We travel…

For health.

For education.

For personal growth.

For understanding.

To talk to new people.

To make memories.

To discover there are millions of ways to define beauty.

To get away from things.

To realize the limitations of our own views.

But most importantly, to appreciate home.

It is so important to expose yourself to new cultures and experiences and to let yourself grow from them. If you are young and able, take that leap of faith and book a trip somewhere. When you push yourself outside your comfort zone, amazing things start to happen. Don’t miss out, live a life worth remembering.