Like many twentysomethings, I have the travel bug. A newly-minted adult, I have been given a taste of freedom and self-reliance, and it is propelling me outward.

Travel calls to me, I have a yearning to discover new places and experience new things. I have four map themed decorations in my bedroom, I look up airplane tickets every few weeks “just in case”. I have a travelling bucket list. I dream of mountains to be climbed and cultures to be experienced and far off cities to be explored.

I have three road trip playlists on my Spotify.

I repost travel videos daily on Facebook.

Yet here I am, smack in the middle of my college career. I have a routine that I don’t normally stray from. I go to class, I am in leadership positions, I do my homework. I’ve often said that I am wasting my youth in a classroom being lectured to when I would much rather be in a car driving down a highway to some unknown place. But the only thing I’m truly wasting is time.

One of the things that I have learned so far in my third year at college is that, sometimes, my adventures are going to be small. They are going to take place within a few square miles of each other. Instead of packing my passport, I pack my textbook.

That is ok!

I have come to realize that some of my greatest adventures can take place right where I am, I just have to be open to them. I don’t have to fly thousands of miles across the globe to meet new people, I just have to strike up conversation with the person next to me in class.

The highest mountain I’ll climb this month is the mountain of papers due next Thrusday, but what a hike it will be! I don’t need a far-off city to explore when I live in a city as diverse and interesting as Tallahassee. I simply need to go to one of the many coffee shops in town to experience culture, because each has their own following, and each attracts a different kind of person.

Exploring even one single building on FSU’s campus is an adventure in itself (I recommend getting lost in Williams or Dodd Hall).

I’ve had this realization that I can sometimes be so lost in wanting an adventure, that I miss the journey happening right in front of me. The greatest tragedy of not being able to live in various places is forgetting to live right where I am. It would be a shame to dream so big that my feet leave the ground that has been given to me to get to know.

Sometimes the big dreamer is only capable of taking small adventures, but that does not mean that the adventures will be any less exciting. Never lose your sense of wonder, just modify it for the time being. Learn all you can about your surroundings, and surround yourself by people and things you can learn from.

So here’s my challenge to you, go have an underrated adventure today. Discover a cool spot in the town you get to live in, and write about it in your travel journal. Go sit in a window seat and daydream stories for the people who walk by. Don’t get so caught up in what life could be that you miss what life already is, and go live it! Go be a small-scale adventurer, you might be surprised what you can find mere miles from your home.