by Becky Ewing ‘14

Almost everyone has dreams of traveling, but realistically, traveling is very difficult to fit into society’s expected path to success. After high school, you go to college. After college, you immediately start your career to eventually support a family. The more comfortably a person settles into life, the more inconvenient traveling becomes.

Leaving the country now-a-days has become outrageously expensive, and many believe they have to first start a career to even afford the luxurious vacation. However, after hearing my dad’s experiences from around the world, I’ve come to realize the importance of traveling while still young and independent. Being on a budget actually enhanced the authenticity of my dad’s journey across Africa and Europe.

While attending Towson University, he spent the school year vigorously working instead of partying. With the money he saved, he spent the summers going on road trips from Maryland to California with his friends or hiking the Appalachian Mountains. After college, he didn’t go straight into pursuing a career. Instead, he worked for one year at an inner city soup kitchen for homeless people while waiting for his Peace Corps application.

The next year he was accepted into Peace Corps in West Africa for a two-year period from 1984 to 1986. He was sent to a village of 6,000 people that had no running water or electricity. He was trained to teach appropriate technology to villagers to reforest the local area through replanting seeds in tree nurseries. He also taught them about sand dune stabilization, fuel efficient mud stoves, primary health care and oral rehydration therapy.

He hiked from village to village to teach classes on these subjects. In each village, he lived with a family in a mud hut and ate whatever meals they made. He went to the village chief and asked him to ask all villagers to attend his class in the village square. He then spent the night at the village chief’s house.

After the Peace Corps, my dad went to Europe with only a backpack of luggage and traveled from city to city on trains. He stayed at youth hostels, which consisted of 20 or more strangers sharing bunk beds in only one room. At the hostels, he befriended his fellow travelers by swapping stories of their experiences. Next time he wanted to visit his new friend’s home country, he stayed at their homes with their families.

Today, society frowns upon those who detour from their expected and comfortable path. Over the years, we have lost the distinction between a traveler and a tourist. A tourist just takes a temporary break from his or her routine life to merely visit a planned destination. However, a traveler completely immerses his or herself in the culture of each country, and knows there is no destination. Traveling, for such a person, is a journey of self-discovery, which is why I believe traveling while young is best time to travel. How can one settle down in one place before exploring the vastness of the world?