“I tramp a perpetual journey,” Walt Whitman
I walked across the stage after hearing my name be announced over the speakers to receive my ticket out the door of where I spent my last four years. Not one bit of me felt sadness over this part of my life ending; instead, I realized I now had a choice to make.
My college plans were already made, I already had everything I needed, but I also had a full tank of gas, a full wallet, and the need to adventure.
While most my friends were getting jobs right after our fun-filled graduation weekend, like we were trained to do, I quit mine that I had been at for the last year and a half. I quit, got in my car and I traveled. I did everything I could do.
I was free.
Unstoppable.
I was an adult.
I had my own money.
And a curious mind.
I had an entire world to see, and I knew that once these short four months were up I would be living without my family, in a new city, taking new classes, and the time I could have spent adventuring would have flown out the window.
I saved money for years. I bought my first car with it, and now I was able to put the rest – well some of it – into my adventures. I hopped on and off planes, saw new states, and camped all over my own state.
I was with friends every week. Family camping trips. Spur of the moment riding adventures. I crashed all over this country with me newfound freedom. I had nothing tying me to my bedroom. I was able to spend my last few months being free, actually being free.
I hit the gas pedal and just went with it. Any bump along the way became just another part of the journey.
Concerts were a must, camping was an obvious obligation, and the beach was a necessity. Pictures captured it all and my social media looks like I never saw my home. Which in all reality, I only saw for a few days out of each month.
I broke rules, laughed until I cried, and saw things I never thought possible. I had the time of my life living for me for a summer.
I quit my job, never looked back, and felt the biggest rush of freedom I could have ever gotten. I tasted adulthood, but savored my childhood all at once. It was this sense of security that I knew would alter once my newest life became in the big city.
I lived for the last chance before I began working and studying for the rest of my life. I wanted to ride out my childhood for as long as I could doing adult trips without any responsibility and I will never regret that choice.
Here’s to the next adventure with my newest responsibilities.
