LIVE YOUR OWN DREAM, NOT THE AMERICAN ONE

Today marks the one year anniversary of the day I graduated from college.

In this past year, I’ve lived in two countries, traveled to five other countries, and have had too many valuable experiences to count — and all while working a job abroad.

But let’s back up a little. It was during my senior year of college, that I first experienced real travel through studying abroad in Japan. It was this experience that would open me up to so many opportunities I had never dreamed of.

Upon returning to the US, I quickly decided I would move back to Asia after graduation. Except I wasn’t moving back to Japan–instead it was to Hong Kong, a country I had fallen in love with while visiting over Christmas break, and the birthplace of my fiancé. I was determined to get to know his family before getting married, to learn some Cantonese, and to save money to see other parts of Asia.

Making the decision was easy, so easy in fact, I don’t even remember making the decision at all. I just knew I was moving to Hong Kong as soon as I graduated.

After graduation, I wasted no time. I gave myself only a few weeks to move out of my apartment and say goodbyes, and a couple of days after my graduation party, I was gone. What I did was downright scary to most people. And if I’m being honest, as the day to my flight quickly approached, I was a little scared too.

What if I made the wrong choice? What if I don’t have enough money to live? What if I hate Hong Kong? 

But hey, I’ve been doing it almost a year now and am loving every second of it. Well, maybe not every second, but I most certainly don’t regret my decision to follow my dreams.

So why am I telling you this?

It’s because I’ve noticed a few things recently. 1) A lot of people have been finding my site through “What do I do now that I’ve graduated?” or “Why should I travel after graduation?” Google searches and 2) it dawned on me that this weekend was graduation at my alma mater. Huh. It makes a bit more sense now.

But this is not why traveling after graduation is the best time to travel, as you see I’ve already written one of those posts. This is about pursuing your dreams.

There’s a lot of pressure put on fresh grads to do what everyone else is doing. You graduate, you get a job, you work for about 40 years, and you someday hope to retire so you can finally do all the stuff you really want to do. Ah, the “American Dream” … err, wait a minute, no, that sounds horrible!

I always think back to a quote from one of my favorite predictable teenage movies:

“YOU WON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT ’TIL YOU’RE 45, AND EVEN IF YOU GET IT, YOU’LL BE TOO OLD TO USE IT!”

Well thanks Mr. Stratford. So sure, you can put off doing all the things you really want to do until you’re retired, you’ll have all the time in the world and lots of money then right? Yeah, you might… but, there’s an equally good chance you won’t.

Why put off your dreams to live the “American Dream”? Working yourself to death for 40 years, dreaming of traveling someday? What if someday finally arrives, and like Mr. Stratford said, you’re too old– maybe due to poor health or maybe because you can’t even afford to retire, you never get to live out your dream.

And I know people will argue that you can work and travel with your vacation time. The “American Dream” generally gives us two weeks holiday per year. Two weeks! Almost everyone I’ve met abroad finds this ridiculous because many other countries are given double that! Two weeks is not enough time to really explore and experience a country, especially if you’re having to take into account flight times as well.

It’s no wonder why most Americans don’t travel.

My biggest piece of advice to those graduating college is to follow your own dream.

So what if it’s not what’s expected of you? And I know there’ll be people who will argue that taking time off to travel will ruin your future career, but they’re wrong. Travel will look better than bumming around on your parents couch for a year unemployed, trust me. And when you’re ready to come back and settle down, there are ways you can put your travel and experiences on your resume, I promise!

Though let me be clear, I’m only using travel as the example here because, well… this is my travel blog afterall, but this applies to anything.

So few realize that the only “American Dream” you should be pursuing is your own dream– whatever that may be.

You can thank me later.

Congratulations, graduates!

WHAT PATH DID YOU PURSUE AFTER GRADUATION?