Here goes nothing

Google Search: "jobs that allow me to travel the world"

6,620,000 results in 0.24 seconds and yet, none of them have a clear answer.

I attempt to do a "more focused" job search online and find myself looking at everything from film production companies to tour companies to studios to NGOs, and even (I am not embarrassed in the least about this) character openings at Disney World. I will consider anything that gives me the opportunity to travel. (Ok, so Disney World might be a bit of a stretch... although Cinderella does shed light on the foreign royalty culture and has to greet millions of foreign tourists....)

In my last post, I discussed my travel obsession. After many years of denial, or perhaps misplacement, I have realized that my one true passion is traveling. My favorite books are travel narratives, I collect country guides, and yes, I frequently (obsessively) peruse the Travel Channel website. I cannot imagine life without planning for the next trip. But what do I do with that? How do I transfer a love for travel into a career (or at least something that puts the pasta on the table)? For now, all I know is that I am gripped by wanderlust and gripped so strongly that its nails are digging into my skin. So I must follow it - wherever it takes me. (I feel sorry for the world - it has no idea what's coming). And as I travel, I want to share my stories and experiences. Not just the new and the beautiful because, well, weird stuff happens to me - from being swept out to sea at the Great Barrier Reef to encountering leeches while petting wombats in Tasmania - and isn't that really the most interesting?

As I discover the world, maybe I'll discover myself and in time, my path.

My first stop: Iceland. Bring on the ash.

The beginning...

There are 311 days until I become a real person. 311 days until the one-lane Main Street turns into a multi-lane intersection, and I have to choose a direction for my future. For the past 21 years, I have followed the typical life path of an upper class suburbanite. Girl Scouts, soccer team, manners school, dance classes, AP classes, SAT Prep, Varsity sports, good GPA = early decision to a top school, join a sorority, intern every summer since high school. And, on June 17, 2011, I will graduate from Northwestern University. My friends and classmates will head to NYC/Chicago/LA, find a professional job and a small studio apartment, and work their way up the ladder. Soon enough, they will marry, have children, and move to the suburbs. This is a perfectly acceptable and wonderful plan. My parents followed that path and they are both incredible, successful people. But it is not me.

See, I have this unquenchable desire to see the world and experience every culture, language, natural wonder, and morsel of food I can. To me it is not enough to just experience the world through TV or books (although travel books are my favorite). I want to be immersed in it from head to toe. I want a life of living out of backpacks and racking up frequent flier miles. I want to be out there. I'm not really sure where this wanderlust came from, although my parents should have known when as an 8 year old I wrote my free writes on wanting to visit Australia. But it is this wanderlust that, in the past several years, has shaped my life. From my major/minors to my book list and even to my food preferences, my love for travel and the world has manifested itself.

So now, as I head into my senior year of college, I must start to forge my own path. It may be rough and winding, and without a clear destination. All I know for sure is that it will be full of adventures. Stay tuned.