BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi all,

This is the first time I’ve even looked at this forum, let alone post to it. I’m not a student any more, but was once…and the paths traveled the summer before my last semester (Fall ’98) became one of the most positive life altering decision I’ve ever made…and which I’d like to share. Maybe someone out there will go for it too!

Here is the story:

In the spring of ’98 I was finishing up my second to last semester at HPU having only four classes to go to complete my BSCS. A good friend of mine was going to Germany that summer for his USC MIBS work abroad program (eight months in a business capacity.) So, I thought I’d head out ‘that way’. Honolulu-London tickets were at least a $100 cheaper than anything else, so I settled on London. After some research I discovered BUNAC (http://www.bunac.org/usa/) which is a student work-abroad non-profit organization. A few weeks later in late May of 1998 I landed in London. Those first few days are as fresh in my mind as making lunch today. Back then I had long hair, wore aloha shirts exclusively, one pair of ratty green deck shoes, a phone number of a mate of a mate of a mate who offered to put me up, about $900 in cash, and not a fucking clue in the world. It was an incredible experience (and wild party!) from the first moment. Within a week I had a room in an 1880’s Stoke Newington row-house owned by this 50-something hash-smoking hippy couple. Within two weeks I had a job with a small startup dotcom company three doors down from Buckingham Palace Mews. It was a job related to my major, which was fantastic.

By the time my London stay was up, I had many new friends from many countries, had traveled to Amsterdam and Köln to visit my sister and some mates, and had a job offer from my company to return to London after graduating in December.

I jumped at it. It has been eight years now and I’m still here in Europe. My world is so much bigger, my perspectives clearer, my friends come from incredibly diverse backgrounds, my career has benefited immensely, and my passport has had two page supplements added. Life is good.

So, I encourage you all not to just travel abroad for a few weeks/months, but to take a summer or semester off and go work somewhere interesting. There are work abroad programs that will get you Americans into Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Oz, and I think Kiwiland. It’ll be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life—up there with having children, buying your first home, and getting married (and maybe divorced).

Good luck! Let us know if you go for it.

Stu