Taking the world by storm
University course work: Creative Non-Fiction
April 2007
My mother bawled as I walked past security into the exclusive departure lounge. Like many before her and like many to come, she wiped away the tears that streamed down her cheeks. Four months, she thought; four months of uncertainty, danger, worry and fear. From that moment, she counted the minutes until I would once again be back in her sight - back to the nest. My father, an experienced traveler, had shared the best of his advice so that while I was new to solo travel, I was certainly not clueless. Airport security examined my passport and boarding pass as I looked back at my family and Nova Scotia for the last time. My eyes shone only with excitement for my new home, Ireland. Four months, I thought; four months of fun, adventure, exploration and growth. Four months of life.
I expected the green isle to be an easy sell for mom, a proud descendent of the Collins clan of Dundrum in the South. She still can't help but sigh and slip into the melodic accent when referring to, as she calls it, the homeland. However, for the dear lass my steps through the airport were like paces toward the end of a plank over shark-filled waters. In a way she was right. My cross-Atlantic move may have been my first real challenge with only two possible results: sink or swim.
At age 18, I wasn't the youngest to make such a journey and I certainly didn't travel the furthest or to the most dangerous parts of the world, but I was a beginner in need of guidance. I turned to SWAP, a clever acronym for Students Working Abroad Program. The organization secured my work visa, helped book my plane tickets, offered two nights at a hostel upon arrival and offered job and accommodation resources. Ireland was one of SWAP's 14 possible host countries recommended for their safe, friendly environments with plenty of work opportunities for someone of my age and experience.
My experiences abroad have since become my most cherished possessions. I will never forget the stomach-sinking awe I felt as I stood at the edge of the Cliffs of Moher, gazing dizzily down toward the gulls and puffins nesting on the 700 ft wall of rock beneath me. Nor will I ever be able to accurately describe the magic of the mist as it washes over the Giant’s Causeway, a mystical bridge of rock columns drenched in legend that leads out into the sea from the country’s northern peak.
Join the club
Every year, over 10 million families from all around the world watch their own student travelers get whisked away by the allure of these very experiences, making students and youth the fastest growing demographic of travelers. While the 18 - 26 age group is commonly associated with lower incomes and large student debts, a growing trend shows more young men and women hiding away money specifically to travel. For proof, just visit any airport toward the end of April, just at the close of the spring semester: prime student departure time.
At the Stanfield International Airport, young men and women of all types scurry from gate to gate like ants, their overflowing backpacks twice the size of their bodies. The main foyer overlooking the security gate is wrought with emotion, bringing the otherwise unremarkable room to life. Family, friends and loved ones cling in teary embraces while packs of twos, threes and fours laugh nervously, unable to predict how their friendships will evolve as their journeys unfold. From the dreadlocked surfer in sandals on her way to Australia, to the future teacher heading to an internship in England, to the design student hoping to break into the high-fashion scene of Milan, each is inexplicably drawn to the intrigue of travel. Each is part of an elite club of adventurers, identifiable only by their excited smiles and discreet maple leaf pins.
Why, with such high stakes at hand, are students still so inclined to leave the comforts of Canada? We cannot possibly share the motive of new worlds and undiscovered land like the travelers of old - the days of John Cabot, Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo have been replaced by the age of cheap airfare and student hostels in every location imaginable. Moreover, if it’s money you’re after you may want to reinvest your ideas. Financially speaking, SWAP explains that most students earn enough money to cover their expenses while working abroad but only the most disciplined will be able to return with money in hand, often at the expense of forgone travel opportunities.
Pack your bags
Travel, it seems, is about the intangibles: the feelings, the memories, the experiences, and the journey. A recent survey conducted by the International Student Travel Confederation (ISTC) explains that the most common motivators for voyaging out into the world are to increase knowledge, explore other cultures and simply for some excitement. While travelers are sure to return with more photographs than anyone cares to see and groan-inducing trinkets like a wooden shoe keychain from Amsterdam, it is the growth and the stories that resonate upon return.
Take Michelle Wright for example. At age 22, she was working two great jobs, making more than enough money to coast comfortably into her thirties. When the end of a relationship sparked a need for a change, the self-assured and adventurous young woman quit unexpectedly and booked a flight to South Korea.
“My decision was completely irrational, but I'd never take it back,” she explains. “I packed my life in a suitcase, signed a contract from a company that I didn't research at all and set off for my 18-hour flight to Seoul.”
Like many travelers, her eyes light up as she recalls her time spent teaching English. Surprisingly, even the memories of nauseating subway smells and her deathtrap Korean apartment building bring a smile to her face, one that only a fellow traveler can understand.
The trip flipped her finances upside down but along the way, Michelle realized the trip was about more than money. Like 75 per cent of young travelers, her drastic move left a long-lasting impact on her appreciation, tolerance and interest in other cultures. This international education, the ISTC explains, is more important now than ever before, a sentiment that Michelle’s experience certainly echoes.
“Although I never struck it rich, my experience was certainly enriching,” she explains. “I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Learn, grow, experience...
More and more young people are being influenced by stories like Michelle’s. So much so, that the ISTC has had to coin a brand new term to distinguish an elite ring of adventurers more likely to recruit new travelers. These are the “career travelers”, daring individuals looking to up the ante with each venture, most continuing to travel for the rest of their lives. Upon reading the term, fictional treasure-hunter Indiana Jones burst into my mind hanging from a burning single-engine airplane, stuffing a precious artifact in his half-open backpack. After shaking myself from the hyperbole, I realized that there was a much more realistic case in my very own social circle: another twenty-something traveler, James Martin.
Raised in the small town of La Scie, Newfoundland, James traveled throughout North America, Europe and Iceland, quickly catching the travel bug that infects over 80% of young travelers with dreams of future journeys. As he follows Michelle’s footsteps teaching English in Korea, he continues to add increasingly challenging destinations like Australia, China and Japan to his travel portfolio. While James remains a driven individual with goals for the future, his philosophy for the moment is clear.
“Travel is my passion and the world is mine to explore,” he said through email, one of his only connections to home. “I love experiencing what I had only seen in textbooks.”
James’ dreams of becoming a teacher will surely bring him back to the classroom, but for now he considers his travels a valuable part of his education - one that cannot be replaced or substituted by any class or book experience.
There is a lot to be said for experiencing and doing rather than reading and researching. Photos simply cannot do justice to our Earth’s many marvels, not just for their beauty but also for the timing, coincidence and luck that brings travelers across these one-of-a-kind moments. After a grueling nine-hour hike through the thick Indonesian jungle, losing most of her adventurous party to exhaustion and nausea, Jill McKenzie, a young traveler in Indonesia, stumbled across a true rarity of nature: a pregnant orangutan.
“I saw the immense perfection of nature, and how much respect it deserves. Coming from a culture that rules over nature as opposed to living alongside it, I experienced something new,” she recalls. “I feared her; I was in awe. For once, humans were vulnerable. My respect and appreciation for nature grew immensely that day.”
Like Jill, young travelers who push past their natural comfort zones open their eyes to a world of learning. These are the moments and experiences that take time to digest and truly recognize their value and impact on a traveler’s life. One such moment in time remains a treasured memory of Josée Lanoue-Poulin who flew to Niger as a high school senior but returned a student ambassador of HIV/AIDS relief.
When I first asked her about her experiences, she took a moment to thank me for making her look back upon them. Now in her early twenties, she recognizes that with each year that goes by, her transformation becomes even clearer - one that began the moment the small plane opened its doors into the African night. The wall of heat crashed into her small frame, with it, eye-opening revelations about the world around her.
“The streets were not illuminated by street lamps. People were sleeping on carpets without any protection from the small sand storms whirling around them,” she remembers. “For some strange reason, in the sea of darkness there seemed to be peace. This feeling reoccurred many times throughout my trip. Although inconceivable poverty surrounded me constantly, I seemed to be immersed in as much joy.”
...and repeat
Josée and I met this past year as we shared an office for a four-month internship. Her bronzed skin and sparkling eyes shone with excitement as she walked into the office, fresh from a summer-long stay in Thailand. As travelers do, we filled our lunch breaks with tales from of our journeys spanning across continental Europe, Asia and Africa. Our animated conversations boomed with a thirst for life and, like a skilled temptress, coaxed forth a restlessness in me that I had actively been suppressing.
I find myself sitting against my bed on the floor while browsing flight sell-offs on my laptop. In my closet across the room, I can see a black duffle bag that, three years ago, proudly struggled to hold all the necessities for my Ireland adventure. The very same bag accompanied my father to jungles, deserts and woodlands on five of the seven continents on countless journeys. These days, its many buckles and clasps drag on the floor as I carry the bag and its new contents on its only weekly trip, down one flight of stairs to the washing machine.
My traveling days are on hiatus for a few years as I hover between scholarly life and the nine to five - but there are brighter days in store for my baggage. Stephen, my older brother, has his sights set on an adventure bigger and better than I ever would have expected. In place of the respectable eight-hour flight that brought me to my Ireland home, my brother will spend a total of 32 hours traveling to New Zealand where completed job applications and a work visa will hopefully have him snowboarding on some of the world’s most spectacular mountains while Canadians tan on the beach. Well, except for our mother.
She’ll have her eye on the calendar, anxiously awaiting Stephen’s return.