So, I bet you’ve heard the saying “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” Well, while staring at the beautiful Irish countryside between Dublin and Galway last week, I realized something. Something great. I’ve never seen grass that green, and I think it’s a sign. There is no other side of the fence. That Emerald Isle breaks the cycle of the other side being somewhere else.
In that one moment on that tour bus I thought to myself, “Julia,” I thought, “the grass is greener on this side of the fence.”
This photo of Healy Tours is courtesy of TripAdvisor
(The above pic is of a lil castle we saw on the way to the Cliffs of Moher on a Healy Tours trip to Galway)
Obviously, the green grass in Ireland is not the reason why I’m thinking of going to grad school on that wonderful island, but it jump-started a new train of thought.
I am definitely joining the Peace Corps, be it a part of my Masters program or not. The idea of attending school here in Europe is just becoming more and more attractive as a recurring activity. How can I spend only a few months here when I have my whole life ahead of me?! Spain has even changed the way I think about the future. What if I just want to keep teaching English all my life? What if I go to Latin America and China? Maybe even Africa?
People!
Buildings!
The thing is, traveling changes you. Going to a new place and seeing things you could never have imagined with people you never knew you needed to meet just makes you want to do it all over again…. and again and again and again. Why do people stay in one place? For me, it’s now impossible. The world is so big, and no longer a vague concept. Every place is just a place, with buildings, and people and problems and politics and an unsavory past, but that’s just what makes it so fascinating. What gives a city its character? How does a village acquire its unique lil flavor? Why isn’t Berlin exactly like Barcelona? There are people and there are buildings, but what you get is a sense of the culture.
Getting lost on purpose is the best agent of this process. While meandering near Dublin, my cousin, Kim, and I accidentally found a castle. When I walked aimlessly in Granada, I found a little bit of peace and a part of myself I didn’t know was there. On the other hand, I knew exactly where I was going when I lost my camera in Sevilla, so there you go. Sometimes the best plan is no plan. (It makes sense in my head right now, shhh)
So now I’ve learned to be comfortably aimless. Yes, we usually have plans (and by “we” I mean “I,” and by “have plans” I mean “am neurotic”). However, the rules are more like guidelines, anyway, aren’t they, Captain Jack?
When you travel with something loosely plan-like, but not set in its planny ways, you are magically adaptable. You are able to adjust to the cool people you meet every once in a while, and spend a few hours doing the opposite of what you thought you’d be up to for the next five hours.
The people who understood me in high school were few and far between. I loved my first year of college because I was on the same wavelength with everyone about schoolwork and other nerd-related things. I met some super awesome people. However, I have met more people that understand me while traveling than ever before in my life. Thanks to two smart fellows whose paths intersected with mine in Granada, I think I know why. People who travel are like people who travel. (“DUH,” you say?) We want more from the world. We want to see, hear, taste, touch, and sometimes even smell other cultures. We learn to be independent and then can’t let go of that freedom. Do new things, learn new languages. Home will be there when you get back, if it even was “home” to begin with. The people who love you will still love you if they need to skype you for a while and can’t hug you until next year, or the year after. 
Your perfectly screwy family will be the same screwy family every time you call them. Sure, missing people is part of the deal, but I won’t count myself as having reached another life goal until I miss people from at least two more continents. Although, let’s face it, I’m already on my way there.
And I am SO RELAXED about it. Two more years in New York seem perfect to me because I think even three would feel like too much. On to the next adventure, I say. There’s only so much time left to be young and stupid. If I have to get a masters (which I REALLY WANT), I might as well do it in a new and exciting place… like the Midwest :p
The Peace Corps is not a question because the world needs help, I want to attempt giving it, and apparently nothing makes me happier than being immersed in a new culture for at least a couple months. Two years and three months might get it out of my system enough to have a family before I’m thirty.
There’s always the U.S. roadtrip for when the travel bug bites me and makes me want that good old freedom of the closest I can get to planlessness.
A mortgage and a security blanket can wait, yes sir, because the other side of the fence is greener and, until I lost my camera, I had the pictures to prove it.
Much love and happy thoughts,
Julia
