Wanderlust |ˈwän-dər-ˌləst|

noun

a. A strong desire to travel

A list of previous destinations, piles of pictures and boarding passes, memories of unfamiliar faces and places, and the desire to do it again and again and again. Wanderlust is both a blessing and a curse. You want to go everywhere and anywhere, but life is a thing and it holds a bunch of responsibilities.

Last week I sat down with a friend and we shared our traveling experiences. Now, we are only 19 years old so we don't have many experiences, but there was one thing that we both agreed on: we want more. More time in the air and on foreign ground. More experiences in countries, and cities, and towns whose names were unknown before the trip. There's just a desire to travel - wanderlust.

This generation of young people is called the wanderlust generation, because we do more traveling than ever. It is estimated that 20% of all international travelers are young people. Guys, we are traveling more and more, and learning more than we could ever learn in the classroom from our experiences.

Now is the time to travel. While you're young and have free time before careers and families start. Just think, if you took a trip once a year every year while you're in college, you would have been on four major trips. This is the reason why I am making a goal of going on at least one trip a summer until I graduate. I have three more summers left, and I could not be more excited for the opportunities I am going to have. My dream for years has been to travel to Germany, and I am so excited to say that this coming May, I get to fulfill that dream. I would say that this trip could possibly "cure" my wanderlust, but it will probably just fuel the fire even more.

Wanderlust--it's a real thing and there's really no way to get away from it. To get away from your wanderlust is to lose your desire, and thirst, for traveling and new experiences. I hope you continue to fuel the fire of your wanderlust with new destinations and experiences. Go new places and learn their culture. Go for business and go for leisure. Whatever you do, just go.

"If we were meant to stay in one place, we would have roots instead of feet." -Rachel Wolchin