I just read a book by a woman named Rachel Friedman. She is a traveler who finds her way after leaving school and not really knowing what to do with her life. In a way, the idea of joining corporate America seemed… stifling. So she went to Ireland, South America, and Australia (in the book). She learned a lot there.
Looking at her story made me realize something that I have always kind of known but tend to forget. The USA makes traveling hard but more people should spend a year doing it. Hear me out because I am not crazy! This time.
For a full-grown person to leave the USA and take a year of just studying they have to leave behind oodles of loans and unpaid bills of health care. Most people once they leave school have no choice but to suffer through years of working with a hope that at the end of the tunnel there is the chance in your 60’s that you are still healthy enough to go abroad. That’s insane, right? I mean I am all for working for what you want but the way we currently run in the USA you don’t work for what you want, you work for a dream that will never happen.
In England and Australia they make it easy to go and see the world. In most countries around the world they encourage gap years and times to explore. It’s part of growing up. It’s part of finding out who you are. And as our world grows smaller due to technology it is part of meeting our global community.
What do you think?
Mark Oliver Wizard Goldstein
My Magical Life 