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comment by NewVegasGod
NewVegasGod  ·  3817 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Most Travelled Man on Earth

I live in Illinois (not Chicago) and I'm 16.

Please don't hate me for being 16, by the way. I don't know if this place is the kind of place that automatically hates anyone under 20, but reddit certainly is so you never know.





user-inactivated  ·  3817 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Please don't hate me for being 16, by the way.

Come on.

So it's a little harder for a 16-year-old to travel, but not impossible. If traveling with your family isn't an option for whatever reason, explore alternate options through your high school, your church if you have one, etc. Most high schoolers I know who were able to go to interesting places went on mission trips. I also know a guy who saved up some money and hooked up with one of those foreign exchange group programs. Or get in your car and drive to Toronto (if you have a car. you may not have a car), it's a cool place.

I myself didn't travel much in high school, because it's way harder. But fuck, traveling in college is the easiest damn thing in the world. If you want to travel after college, get a job that involves moving around a lot. In no way does "being 16 and unable to get out of Illinois at the moment" translate into "stuck forever." It only seems like it. In the meantime listen to the Hold Steady and do hard drugs.

NewVegasGod  ·  3816 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I wasn't assuming that I'd always be here because I'm young, I was assuming so because everyone I seem including adults, have been stuck here their whole life. The flip side to this is that it is a distinct possibility that I don't see people traveling much because the people who do travel have left.

It's a relatively small town so we don't have many (if any) mission trips and exchange programs sound terrifying. I will try to get out of Illinois at some point though, hopefully out of country. Shouldn't actually be too hard, reading this article just made me momentarily extremely jealous.

user-inactivated  ·  3816 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Fair enough. I understand the feeling. Make travel a primary goal of your life, and it'll happen one way or another.