I don’t intend to play it safe.  I don’t intend to wait for opportunities to come to me. I don’t intend to sit in my dorm room for the next four years of my life.  I don’t intend to spend the rest of my life being “boring.” I intend to be a storyteller, one of who has seen and explored so much of the world that it becomes a part of who I am.

In my seventeen years of life, I feel as if I have already missed out on too much of the world. I feel as if I haven’t had the chance to enrich myself in different cultures, watch the valleys turn into mountains, or engross myself into the worlds of other countries that make our planet a whole.

It is often said that the best way to educate yourself is through the travel. We hear of controversial topics regarding our global issues, but how can we develop an opinion without exploring it for ourselves?

The sciences, philosophies, religions, literatures, and ideas are birthed and originated all over the world. We are not exposed to remotely half of it. Though we have developed technology to help us learn and share our ideas and thoughts globally, there is no better way to expand our knowledge when we choose to travel.

With an Earth filled with rainforests, deserts, tundras, grasslands, forests, mountains, and oceans, why would we choose not to explore? We don’t have to stay in Paris’s world class hotels, eat in Italy’s finest restaurants, or go on the most expensive cruises that travel through the Caribbean.

I don’t want to live a boring life. I want one filled with life-changing, dramatic, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I don’t want to stand still in a world where I can be moved and expanded as a person. I want to grow and leave parts of myself and soul in places of the unimagined and unfamiliar.

So when asked what I want to do with my life, I want to learn. I want to learn about the marine sustainability of our oceans and protect its creatures. I want to learn about the political powers of different countries and how they impact each other. I want to learn about the history and literature that originated in Rome. I want to learn how to use my French to help those in third-world countries. I want to learn about the women of Eastern Asia and help them build a better life. I want to learn how I can bring fresh water to those in Africa.

I want to learn how I can immerse myself into the world, because I most certainly don’t want to be left in solitude in one that is already too familiar.

Bon Voyage.