Wanderlust

By Christina Lanier

This semester, I went to the Rockies. Or, more correctly, I passed over them at 30,000 feet. I was on a flight back from San Francisco and was graced with a clear sky all the way back to Dallas. Even though the flight took off well before my alarm normally goes off, I found myself glued to the window for nearly the entire four hours. I witnessed the beauty of the San Francisco Bay, the foothills to the Rockies, the Rockies themselves, and some very interesting canyon-like formations. All the time, I was in awe.

The world is a big place. I didn’t realize that fully until I went to college. My trip to freshman orientation was the first time I had ever stepped foot on a plane- when we went on family trips, it was in a car with a map and a view of the open interstate. Since that first ascent (a year and a half ago), I have been on more than twenty five flights touching down in more than ten states. Almost all of those flights were on university-sponsored trips.

Travelling that much has instilled in me a sense of wanderlust- every time I go somewhere, I fall more in love with the world. And I want to see more of it. I recently applied for a passport, a document I haven’t ever needed to use. I’m hoping to change that. My goal is to see as much of the world as I can while I still can.

While I still can. Life catches up with you pretty quickly. If it hasn’t already for some of you, it will when you hang your diploma on the wall of your real office (or desk) at your real job. I know that after I graduate from law school, I won’t have but two weeks a year to see the world and that’s only if I have the desire to get out of bed on my ten days of vacation time. I want to travel the world before life catches up- before the job, the house, the kids (not too sure on that last one).

We should all have some sense of wanderlust in college. Whether it’s to just get out of the house and explore the town, or to fly all the way across the world to study. Or maybe you’re like me and you’ll join a competitive team that takes you to the corners of the country all because the university thinks you deserve to learn. Whatever your reason is, take the opportunity to satisfy that wanderlust- go on a long weekend, over a break, with a school trip. Take the time to see the world before life catches up. Maybe you’ll see me staring out the window on the plane ride.