Everywhere I turn, my family and friends remind me that my college years are "the best years of my life" because of the experience I'll get and the people I'll meet and the new opportunities I will discover as I enter the "grown-up world."

I believe all of that is true. As college students, it is possible to make these four years the best, but not by sitting in the library every day reading and studying and waiting to get a full-time job. College is that time before we have so many responsibilities that we almost don't have time for anything else. We are taught to believe that college is basically a gateway to resume-building and having enough money to keep making money. But I think that's not what this is all about. People, including myself, discover themselves in college but not through a textbook. One discovers themselves by exploring and learning new things about the immense and beautiful world we live in.

Now when I talk about traveling, I don't mean taking a five-day vacation to a five-star hotel in some beautiful tropical city. Even though that is a very nice image, most college students have tight schedules and even tighter budgets. No one would really learn anything by staying in a nice hotel and not going out and getting their hands dirty.

Even though traveling in college seems hard, it could be easy if one has enough courage and a positive mindset to reach that goal. In college we are constantly offered great opportunities to travel like a study abroad semester, which is the best way to start on a traveling journey. But the opportunities don't stop there. Getting started on scholarship application is the best way to go, in order to not spend your life's savings on a trip. Even taking a gap year might be what's right for you. There are actual statistics that show how taking a gap year make college students want to return to college and have more aspiration in what they will do with their lives.

We have to put fun and love back in our lives. As important as it might be, money isn't the only thing that will make us happy in our future. By knowing more about the world, we will find out more about ourselves and find out who and what we're supposed to do with our time here. Through traveling we discover new cultures and cities and people that are completely different than each one of us, and we learn from them as well. I think this is what is meant by the saying "follow your heart." By traveling you are following the path you're suppose to take in life. Take that risk and enjoy.