Author Neil Gaiman said: "You get what anyone gets. You get a lifetime." We have a finite number of heartbeats, and we never know when ours will run out. This blog is a chronicle of the 47 day Contiki Tour of Europe that I am embarking on this summer. Just about the best use of heartbeats I could imagine.
By the time I step on the plane, I will have worked for a whole year to take this trip. While on top of scrounging the money to head to Europe for 7 weeks, I also managed to pay my college tuition and all commuting costs involved, work a part-time job AND work an unpaid internship Monday – Friday for 8 weeks to fulfill my graduate certificate requirement.
It wasn’t easy… If I didn’t know the value of money before I started saving for this trip, then I definitely do now. I think that’s an understatement as I’m still desperately trying to pay my bills and put money away in time for my June 23rd take-off.
I decided to take this trip when I started approaching my University graduation last April. I knew I was planning on going back to school for yet another year to complete a post-graduate certificate in Corporate Communications and Public Relations. This was the next big step, but despite being excited about attending a new program, in a new school, in the big city of Toronto, I couldn’t help but feel… unfulfilled. I’m missing something. I still feel that way, despite having almost completed my graduate studies and working an amazing internship. I don’t want to have a pity-party because I know I am beyond fortunate and have accomplished great things for only being twenty-three. I want more. That’s why I hope that spending 7 weeks traipsing around Europe with my best friend of twenty years will help me to rediscover and reconnect with the tenacious dreamer of my younger, less jaded, self. I want to return from this trip inspired.
