I am a 20 year old female with an extreme case of wanderlust… and let me tell you it is not easy to deal with. I try really hard to live in the present. Not worrying about things that have happened in the past that I can’t change and not worrying about anything that could happen in future that I can’t control. However when you have wanderlust it can be very hard to be in the present because you basically want to be anywhere except where you are currently. Or at least for me that is how I feel.

Dictionary.com defines wanderlust as “a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about.” Merriam-Webster defines it as “a strong desire to travel”. And Wikipedia defines wanderlust as “a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world.” All three of these definitions perfectly sum up how I would define wanderlust.

It is not easy to have this desire while being a college student. I struggle with this battle every day. On the one hand it feels like it is the perfect time to travel because I am not tied down anywhere, I don’t have a full time job yet, I still have the summer to do what I want. Yet on the other hand travel can sometimes be expensive, summers can easily be filled with internships for college credit or to boost up your resume, and to be honest sometimes it is hard to just get up and go. It might sound easy in nature but where does one actually begin with going?

Every item on my bucket list basically has to do with travel. Before I die I want to have been to every continent, I want to backpack across Europe, and I want to sleep in every state in the United States. I want to live a life in motion! I truly believe that life was not meant to be lived in one place and I have some plans to go far.

Luckily there are some ways for me to travel while in college. For example I will be traveling to Australia in the spring for my study abroad experience. I have already gone on an awesome road trip to go to a wedding in Minnesota. And I have plans to hike all around New England during my Fall Break. So while traveling during college may be difficult it is not impossible. Sometimes you just gotta say screw this I’m going. There will be people in your classes to catch you up on notes and what is one missed class?

We are all only so young for so long so I say go out there and grab life by the horns. You never know what is going to happen unless you make it happen!