Why I Plan to Travel Alone

At first the idea of traveling in Europe by myself freaked me out. I didn’t want to do it. It seemed like I was asking for trouble to find me, but the more research I have done, the more I have realized that traveling alone would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to discover myself.

The biggest reason I have made the decision to tackle at least one or two trips on my own is because then I wont have to make any compromises. I think about how many times a week I say yes to something that I’m really not gung-ho for. “Sure, we can watch that movie instead of this one.” “Yeah, going to dinner at 5:30 instead of 6:00 is cool.” “Yeah, I’ll go to this activity instead of that one.” For day-to-day activities, these compromises aren’t that big of a deal. But when I get to Europe, I don’t want to be saying “Yeah, we can leave the Louvre an hour early” because, that will not be okay for this Art History nerd. If I’m alone, I can spend as little, or as much time at each location as I want. If I feel like getting started early, I can. If I want to stay an extra day, or if I’ve seen everything and want to leave a day early, I can. I don’t have to accommodate anybody’s schedule but mine. I can eat at whatever restaurant I want. I will be more aware of my surroundings. I will get to talk to more of the locals. I will get a very individual experience and it will be some of the best memories of my life. I’ll be able to discover what I am truly capable of.

There were two things that really made me start to consider traveling on my own for part of my time in Europe. This blog post and this YouTube video.

If you are going traveling soon, I would recommend checking these sites out and see what you think afterwards.

That being said, by best friend Erin will be in Ireland while I am in England, so I definitely want to travel some with her and make some memories for us to look back on. We want to go to Auschwitz together. We know it will be very emotional, and experiencing that will be so eye opening. The Holocaust was one of the topics I was most interested in when it was taught in school; so getting to see that will be a once in a lifetime experience.

If you have any travel tips for me, please let me know in the comments!

“The one who reigns forever

He is a friend of mine

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side”

Whom Shall I Fear by Chris Tomlin

I Don't Know...

As many of you probably know, applying to college is a pretty confusing and stressful process. Then deciding where to go after getting your acceptance letters raises the stress even more. And after you've picked a school you have to figure out how to pay your bill, where you are going to live, how you're going to eat and what classes you are going to take. Even more confusion.
Now, imagine doing all of that for a school in another country. Where your first choice is your only choice (so make sure its a good one) and where you can't just pick up the phone and call somebody to answer your questions because of astronomical long distance fees.
Let me just say it how it is: Applying to study abroad sucks. Oh, and did I mention you have to pay $300 just to apply?! Yeah.
At times I would wonder why I was even putting myself through all of that. Why is the process as annoying as it is? Maybe it isn't worth the trouble. Maybe I just won't go abroad. Maybe I'll just stay in North Carolina. Hey, I'd be guaranteed to finish in four years! But something kept telling me to push on through and just get that application in. Even if it meant slacking on the school work a bit.
Well, the day I got that application turned in was a huge weight off my shoulders. I thought that the worst was behind me. Well I was wrong.
The process doesn't end there. You have to wait for acceptance letters, you have to buy plane tickets, you have to figure out if you need a visa. You have to find out how much it will cost. You have to find a place to live. You have to sit through endless workshops with overloads of information being thrown at you. And you get back to the mindset of "maybe this isn't worth it." Then somebody says "It was the best time I've ever had!" or "It changed my life." So you keep pushing through, saying to yourself, well, now that I've gone through all this trouble, it better be as awesome as they say it is.

At this point, I've been accepted. I know where I'm going. I have my plane ticket. I have applied for housing. My stress levels are slowly lowering.
I still have a lot of unknowns in my life though. I don't know what classes I'll be taking. I don't know if people are going to be friendly or not. I don't know what adaptor to get for my plugs. I don't know what bank to use. I don't know how I'm going to contact my family without huge fees. I don't know what to pack. I don't know all the British slang. I don't know what 2014 holds for me.
I don't know and it scares me. It scares me and it makes me so excited at the same time.
I cannot wait to go on this adventure. The more I think about it, the more things pop into my mind that I  have to do, as well as I am starting to think that all the hassle WILL be worth it in the end. I hope to document this adventure of mine here on this blog, and I really hope you will follow along.
I don't where my adventure will end, but I do know that it begins on January 21st when I step on that plane.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" -Romans 8:31