Why Now is the Best Time to See the World, There is no better time to travel than after graduation, and for plenty of reasons. This is the one time in your life when you’ll likely be free of ties and with plenty of time to see the world. You’ll be able to take advantage of student discounts and stay in cheap hostels, you can gain experience to help you find a job when you return, and it can even help you transition to a corporate life!
Here are five reasons to travel after you graduate.
1. You Have No Ties
The time after graduation is likely to be the one time in your life when you have the least amount of commitment and responsibilities. You’ll likely be unmarried, single, childless, and jobless. What’s holding you back? Spend a couple of years building your savings before graduation and hit the road for a few months over summer. If you find yourself with a job offer, see if you can delay starting until fall. You’ve worked hard; you deserve a break.
2. Take Advantage of Student Travel Discounts
You know when you’ll next be eligible for great travel discounts because of your age? In about 40 years when you’re a senior citizen. Make the most of those student discounts by jetting off before it’s too late. Most discounts don’t even require proof that you’re a student — just being between 18 and 25 is enough. You can get discounts on accommodation, flights, transport — anything you can think of!
3. Boost Your Resume
While long-term travel is something that used to be frowned upon by employers, the tides are turning and travel can easily framed as a positive. Travel teaches you patience and compassion, and you learn to communicate with people you may not share a common language with. You learn how to bargain, how to catch a bus in a foreign country, how to budget your savings. Travel teaches you so many skills that you can use to your advantage when applying for a job.
4. Hostels Are Cheap and Fun, Perfect For Students
Hostels really are great when you’re still under 25. You’ll get to meet and hang out with people your age who are just as excited to explore the world. You won’t care as much about getting eight hours of sleep each night, or whether you’re woken up in the middle of the night by someone stumbling through the room. Nearly every traveler promises themselves they’ll stay in dorms forever but few of them ever do. Before long, you’ll find yourself opting for private rooms, and then staying in guesthouses, and before long, you’ll find yourself booking a hotel.
5. Transition From Student Life to Adult Life
Making the jump from college to corporate life can be overwhelming, and traveling first can ease the transition. When you travel, you’ll be interacting with people from backgrounds very different to those of your college friends. Getting out of your comfort zone forces you to learn new skills: how to budget, how to catch a bus, how to find a street food cart that won’t make you sick. When you return home, ready to find a job, you’ll find that the idea doesn’t seem quite so daunting any more.
If You’re Considering Travel, Do It!
You know what would be even worse than leaving to travel and having a miserable time? Spending the rest of your life wondering what might have been. No matter what’s holding you back — whether it’s fear, money, or an unsupportive family — find a way around it and get out on the road. Nobody ever regrets it.