Twenty-Something Tuesday

While the series of low-paying jobs that got you through college may not have put a significant dent in your student loan bills, you will one day be making big girl money. There can be no better way to spend that hard-earned cash than on the adventure(s) of a lifetime, waiting for you abroad. With so many travel and hotel discount sites, traveling the world is more accessible than it has ever been for the young (that’s us). Now is the time to tuck away small amounts for big trips and here’s why.

1. Your schedule has more flexibility.

It becomes harder to take time off from work when you want it as you progress through your career or as you begin to have a family. It’s also a time when if you don’t love your job there are far fewer consequences for leaving it to take some time off to explore.

2. Your travels can become a part of your resume.

If you decide to take some time to travel and not work, you can still work those experiences into your resume. If you blog about your journey, take pictures, or find cool ways to volunteer or offer your service as you travel, your future employers will see your adventures as a hireable skill and not just a time when you were not employed.

3. Staying in hostels, surviving on street food, and student discounts to museums are only applicable in your twenties.

The older you get, the more high maintenance your trips become. Let’s be honest, sleeping in a bunk bed in a room full of strangers sounds much more exciting now than it ever will in the future.

4. Your body can handle it.

During your twenties, your metabolism is rocking and your body isn’t yet decrepit. Therefore, you can totes crank around Europe and your body won’t yell at you as loudly as it will later in life.

5. If not now, when?

As it tends to go in life, we’re always saying “we’ll do this IF…” The thing is that life is never going to be perfectly set for you to dash off to another country. We can only just make it as ideal as we can and then run with it, and we highly doubt you’ll regret it.

6. Everything is still new.

The older you get, the less jaw-droppingly amazing the world seems and the more it reminds you of something you’ve seen before. Watch the sun rise over mountains or set over a sprawling city. Duck into a church to hear the choir sing in another language. Eat something you’ve never heard of and can’t pronounce. We’re still growing in our twenties, and part of that is experiencing the world for the first time.

7. Gotta start at some point, amiright?

See Also

5 Reasons Why a Neck Gaiter is Essential for Hiking

We would rather be traveling than anything else, so we have a pretty extensive list, and we know we’re not the only ones. You gotta start ticking off your travel-musts at some point, so why not in your 20s?

8. Put all your years of studying into action.

You’ve spent years in school acquiring knowledge and the theory of the world, well now’s the time to go out and see that information in action. Go see the where the history you studied was made, get a different nation’s perspective on the events you learned about your country, see how people interact differently and how culture has evolved elsewhere. Whether you studied art or econ, you will find your horizons broadened just from sitting in a cafe with a newspaper, and eavesdropping in another country.

9. Stay sane.

Once you get into the workforce your life is no longer your own, it’s a non-stop rollercoaster of meetings, deadlines, bosses and highly limited free time. It’s even likely that when you’re not at work, you’re still thinking about it, or your email is still exploding. Taking the time to take a large trip lets you escape from reality and reminds you why you do what you do. Whether you enjoy your job or just do it to pay the bills, rewarding yourself with time off and doing something life-altering helps make the agonizing workloads a bit more feasible.

10. Fill your home with memories.

Just starting out, our homes tend to resemble more of an IKEA catalog than something deeply personal because interior design just isn’t in the budget. But if you save the time and money to take this big trip, you can come home and pepper your walls with photos, postcards, knick-knacks, and collectibles from your travels.