Life After Magellan

Life After Magellan:

My Magellan was so amazing I never wanted to come home! Traveling the world independently was definitely an eye opening experience. Before my trip people were always asking me, “Wow, aren’t you scared to go all alone?? Won’t you get lonely??” I wish I counted how many times I got asked that. Truthfully, I wasn’t scared at all for that part because in my mind, the other people in the hostel are alone too so why not just be alone together and become friends right? It also helps that I would consider myself a very friendly and personable person. During my trip I really only felt lonely a few times in the beginning but after about a week and a half I was loving every second of it and never felt lonely. I made amazing friends everywhere I went. If you ever get to travel the world I highly recommend staying in hostels because you meet so many other travelers from around the world and form friendships that will last a lifetime. Now I can truly say that I have friends all around the world! Traveling the world alone also made me extremely independent, even more than I was before. I had to figure out how to get from place to place, cook, and be able to handle whatever was thrown my way. My issues started right away, when I landed in Australia and found out my luggage got left behind in Los Angeles! That was definitely not the first thing I wanted to hear after landing in Australia. I had to buy clothes and essentials to last me until my luggage got to me, which ended up being 4 whole days! I even had to extend my stay at the first hostel and cancel the second one because I had to stay longer to wait for my luggage to arrive. Words cannot explain how relieved I was once I saw my blue bag once again!!

I did so many fun and exciting things during my Magellan that I had the time of my life- literally. I was so busy every day and I loved it that way. I didn’t even have time to miss people and feel lonely so that definitely helped me not feel homesick. I got to go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, play with kangaroos and wallabies, go skydiving, surfing, bungy jumping, snowboarding, hold a koala, hike in the rainforests, climb waterfalls, be surrounded my wildlife and nature everywhere I went, all while creating memories that will last a lifetime! This project will not only look great on my resume, but it also taught me a lot.

After the most exciting month of my life and an amazing start to summer, everything else seems so boring. Yes it was great to come home for the first time since Christmas basically, and see my friends and family who I missed, but having an everyday schedule of waking up, working out, going to work, playing sports, going to sleep and repeating, it’s just not nearly as fun as my time abroad was. Before 2017 I had only been out of the country to Canada, but in the past six months I have been to seven different countries (including Canada again). After that all I want to do is keep traveling the world and go to all these amazing different places on my bucket list. Also, I definitely want to go back and see other places in Australia and New Zealand, and I could honestly see myself living in one of those countries when I am older.

W&J and the Magellan Project have made my life goals possible ad I cannot express enough how thankful I am for the opportunities I was given. I HIGHLY recommend doing a Magellan if you are a W&J student because it was such an amazing once in a lifetime experience. And if you aren’t a W&J student, I still highly recommend going out of your comfort zone and go see the world! There are so many cool places to see that are so different than your everyday life in the US and it is really eye opening to see how the rest of the world lives. The Magellan Project has not only changed my outlook on life, but it has also prepared me for the rest of my life and I will be forever grateful for that.