I’m leaving the country because I enjoy traveling.

Because I dream of adventure.

And I have wanderlust.

I will receive my bachelor’s degree May 2017 totaling sixteen years of school in my life. So, I've never experienced life outside of school. My knowledge has been shaped by schooling, shaped by the classes I take, the homework I do and do not do, and the grades I earn. I’ve traveled outside the United States several times for vacation and for classes. I’ve spent Spring Breaks in Mexico and a three-week class in Spain and later in France. I’ve experienced a lot, and yet, I’ve experienced nothing at all.

I’m leaving the country because I crave knowledge outside the doors of a classroom, the knowledge outside my societal norms and my cultural norms. I crave the things that exist outside my brain and my own reality.

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson

I don't want to leave to escape the result of the 2016 Presidential Election. I want to escape something more personal: the doldrums of routine. I've never been out of school; I've never lived anywhere truly exotic. I was raised in Colorado and went to school in Nebraska. I've never escaped the strict class and work schedule, and I want to truly experience time outside of that. The Spanish have siestas (nap time) in the afternoons. Stores close from 2:00 to 4:00 and business hours aren't rigid, but rather very flexible. Time is relative.

I'm leaving the country because I'm ready. Ready for nuanced, forward thinking and timeless adventures.