As I said in my previous post - How to Travel on a Post-Grad Budget, Part 1 - it is 180,000% possible to travel on a post-grad budget, and I will continue to defend this statement in a manner that is borderline aggressive.
Here are four more tips to help you save while traveling.
Read MoreIt is 180,000% possible to travel on a post-grad budget, and I will defend this statement in a manner that is borderline aggressive.
The world wasn’t meant to be admired from a stock desktop wallpaper; it was meant to be experienced. This is another statement that I will defend in a manner that is borderline aggressive.
But traveling isn’t always easy on entry-level wages. Here’s how to see the world without breaking the bank.
Read More"Peace is always beautiful."
I have that hanging on the wall in my bedroom, the quote from Walt Whitman printed across baked clay, a piece of art I found at a market my sophomore year during a somewhat rough period in my college career.
Peace has always been something I've craved but never quite known what exactly it was or how to find it, as though it's some mysterious ancient treasure that only a select few manage to unearth.
And I - the one with an anxious mind and penchant for meticulously thought-out life plans - clearly was not one of those select few.
Read MoreAt the risk of sounding like a bad Cosmo article, have you ever imagined residing in an exotic locale, lounging in a hammock while a tanned and buff Fabio (or Fabiana, whatever floats your boat) fans you with palm leaves?
Blame it on growing up with such classics as The Lizzie McGuire Movie, but I presumed that if I ever lived abroad my romantic encounters would closely follow the previously mentioned fantasy. Upon planning my year in Argentina (when I was not milling through government documents or googling “Why do you people not flush toilet paper in Buenos Aires?”) I was quick to jump to images of Fabio. Absolutely none of this makes sense considering I am deeply shy and renowned for my lack of flirting prowess. Just one glance from a suitor and I will break out in an itchy red rash. I spent a greater part of my junior year wearing turtlenecks and scarves because I frequently saw the boy I liked on campus.
However, this was before I moved to South America. For those of you who have not traveled this far south of the equator, let me tell you one thing – prepare yourselves. The men of Argentina (while I hate to generalize, this has been my experience so far) make Italians look shy. They will pursue you, they will want to wine and dine you, and it will be bizarre though occasionally wonderful. I’ve found that the strange experiences can be justified simply for that random, golden “perfect” date. Here are some tips I’ve garnered from three months of rom com-worthy experiences, meeting less-than Fabio’s in the search for my true Fabio.
Read MoreAbout a month ago, I got a job offer (miracle in itself that anyone would even consider me for any position…). And I reacted the way I normally would: I ran away.
Actually, the trip I was going on had already been long planned out, and it just so happened to fall on that very same weekend. Since my favorite activity is ignoring all responsibility, it couldn’t have been a more perfect time to go. I won’t get into how obsessed I am with traveling considering I feel like I do this in every post/somehow find a way to bring it up to total strangers I meet in the grocery store, but there is a certain clarity I find that I never knew how to find here, the way I toss and turn all night at home but sleep straight until morning when I’m anywhere else. To me, wanting to see and do so much and knowing there are boundaries to that is heartbreak. Maybe the biggest heartbreak I’ve ever known.
Read MoreAre you considering venturing across the pond via plane, ship or self-made raft anytime soon? Have you scoured the Internet for advice, but found yourself drowning in a sea of “not all who wander are lost” BS? Do I sound worldly and knowledgeable yet? If you answered yes, no, or hell no to at least every single one of these questions, then keep on reading!
My goal here is to offer a realistic, yet fully exhilarating, reflection on the post-grad backpacking experience. Before we get started, I would like to emphasize that I am speaking from the viewpoint of someone who has traveled around the UK and Western Europe. This is not intended to be globally generalized advice. If you are looking to backpack in other corners of the world, take what I’m saying with a grain of salt because it may not be applicable. I am merely speaking on experiences individual to Lane Sasser.
Read More"Why are you going to Boston?” asked the middle-aged couple sitting on the plane next to me, their Massachusetts accents heavy and bright smiles welcoming.
“Oh, no reason, really!” I answered.
One Direction. I had bought a $300 plane ticket to Boston to see One Direction.
Spending hundreds of dollars to see four British boys/angels may not have been the most financially-conscious decision, but these periodic weekend runaways are my attempts to put distance between myself and the maddening life questions that come along with young adulthood. Because as I wrote in a previous post, I’ve been having a bit of a tiff with my current life’s circumstances. I’ve been bitter against Nashville for reasons unfair to lay against such a fair and lovely city as this one. So I keep running away.
But I come back. I have no choice but to come back. I have responsibilities in Nashville, obligations that keep me tethered to her Tennessee moors. The anchor is heavy and it’s sunk deep in these city limits. For now, I must stay.
Read MoreNo matter how much you love your job, internship or grad school sometimes you just need a break right? Put simply, humans are not meant to work every single day of their lives, following the same routine and seeing the same sights without experiencing some adverse mental and physical side effects… i.e. Stress, anxiety, binge eating, increased alcohol consumption, insomnia, high blood pressure (all of these things sound awful and terrify the closeted hypochondriac inside of me). Granted I’m not a doctor nor have I taken a science class since senior year of high school but WebMD is such a handy tool for self-diagnosing. How can we combat this burnout from happening to ourselves?
Nerd fact: Burnout is an actual psychological stress syndrome that occurs as a response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job that according to Gabrielle Karol is way too common in women under-30.
While vacations are wonderful, sometimes they aren’t always realistic to all of our dismay. However, we all owe it to ourselves to take a break and get away.
Here are some of the ways we can fulfill the Dalai Lama’s advice.
Read MoreAs a freshman college student I fit the standard for the normal, all-American girl. I had a boyfriend whom I loved, a sorority I belonged to and a dear group of friends. My parents were very supportive of my wishes and needs.
However, as my college years went by I began to draw myself out of my comfort zone. This is how I realized that the community I had surrounded myself with was not challenging me for the better. This isn’t to say that I’m not thankful for the time that I had in my undergraduate years, but it is true that I’m most grateful for the instances that allowed me to escape my “bubble.”
Read MoreLast week was the two month-iversary of graduation, and now that the initial shock of it all is finally beginning to settle in (although the nausea still hasn’t…), I find myself back to where I started from: a place that has been there through both kickball and keg-stands, both diapers and diplomas, and now is where I’m currently enrolled in the class “What-Am-I-Doing-With-My-Life-101.” Just like that, I am home again, back to my old bedroom walls who heard my oh-so-sassy-preteen self rant about how my mother wouldn’t let me wear darker eyeliner. I was lucky enough to learn and grow in a home that allowed me so much love and laughter, somewhere I once thought I could stay forever if the option was given to me.
So when I first came back for good, I didn’t want it to be different, wanted my home to rearrange itself back to the way I had always remembered it to be. But we painted the walls, and we got a new remote for the television. There are hardwood floors where carpet once used to lay, and there are new curtains hanging loosely over the kitchen window. Things are changing. Things have always been changing. And it felt like all at once, the home that in so many ways shaped me, made me who I was, wasn’t the home that I once knew.
Read MoreI have many friends who recently graduated and have taken jobs, internships and opportunities far from home. I, on the other hand, recently accepted a job working in a kindergarten classroom as an assistant at a private school in my Louisiana hometown, Shreveport.
I have to be honest, though: I’ve been struggling lately with wondering if it was the right decision.
Not because I don’t think I’ll like what I’ll be doing. Not because it’s one of the best schools in this area. Not because the people who work here seem to be professional, helpful and wonderful people whom I can’t wait to work with. No, it’s none of those things.
Really, it’s because I’m afraid of getting stuck.
Read MoreThis is it. You’re done with school. Now is the perfect opportunity to get the wild hairs out of your system before you get settled into a typical "adult" routine.
There are a lot of outlets for young people to gain real-world experience in non-traditional ways after college, like teaching abroad, becoming an au pair, or volunteering across the world.
I took the teach abroad route for my first post-grad adventure, and you don’t have to have any teaching experience to be accepted. You generally only need a four-year degree from an accredited university and speak English as your native language.
Read MoreWith the new Mumford and Sons album streaming through my ears (and still desperately wishing everyone was as passionate about this album as I am), I meandered through tree-shaded London streets, alone with my wandering thoughts in a city of seven million.
I returned to sit beneath a tree – my tree – on Primrose Hill, the city unchanged before me as the spring breeze carried shadows across the blooming city.
One year before, I had sat beneath this very same tree, the same skyline set within my eye line, wearily contemplating my “what’s next” after I returned home to the prospects of life post-graduation. Yet here I was - an entire year between that moment and this one - just as in the dark about what I’m doing with my life as I was then.
Read MoreYesterday I booked a flight to Dublin. This whole backpacking thing was turning into such a theory; I seriously needed to stop talking about it and just do it already. I found a bitchin’ round trip deal that will allow me three full weeks in Europe towards the end of the summer. For the most part, I will be alone. My mom does not know about any of this yet.
Read MoreSomething very important that has taken me almost two years out of college to start accepting is that sometimes, you can do everything perfectly right and still feel like you got the shaft with no good explanation. I can’t tell you how tough it was for me to see people who barely showed up to class in college get a career handed to them upon flipping their tassel. However, the hardest was seeing your friends get settled into their next step, because as much as you want to be envious, you can’t. Because deep down, you want your loved ones to succeed, even if it means being left behind.
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