Allons! The Road Is Before Us!

First of all, welcome to A Life of Wandering! For one reason or another you discovered this blog (perhaps by chance or perhaps through the recommendation of a friend), and all of us here at ALOW are truly glad that you did. We'll begin by telling a bit about the blog, why we are blogging, and later we'll follow this post up with another about each individual member of the Modesto Wanderers.

(**Just to clear any confusion--A Life of Wandering is the name of our blog; Modesto Wanderers is who we are as a group...so you could say it is our 'team' name or something along those lines...)

A Life of Wandering is a blog created by three humble, adventure-seeking, travel-loving, unconventional students fresh out of high school (okay, almost out of high school) who intend to pursue a life of wandering...dreaming...exploration...and...discovery. This blog will be the basis for our adventures to the lands of far, far away. We will be writing all about our travels, our experiences, the people we meet, the foods we eat, the cultures we encounter, and the life lessons we learn along the way.

We decided to launch A Life of Wandering in order to share our experiences on the road with people such as yourself. Along the way we hope to provide inspiration for others to take up the journey into the unknown and to explore, experience, and encounter all this world has to offer.

Every one of us in the Modesto Wanderers is taking a 'gap year' upon graduation from high school--you know...leaving the 'academic world' for a bit: allowing our minds a break from studies, from waking up at the crack of dawn for 8:30 a.m. classes, from attending class for seven hours a day five days a week... And yes, this means we will not be enrolling in any colleges this coming fall (Fall 2010)--however, we will be venturing out to explore that mysterious and unknown world beyond the great and wondrous United States of America.

Now wait a minute, you ask, why would the three of you delay attending college right after high school?

Other than the reasons listed above, because we do what we want--and what we want is to wander the world. Okay, a little more reasonable explanation is because this is a prime time in our lives to travel, to experience, to see the world; we're more open now than we ever will be to new experiences, strange ideas, and new, interesting people, and at this time in our lives we don't have any major financial or work commitments. Now is the time to take advantage of such an opportunity of freedom that won't always be available. So really the question is: why not?

So you might also be thinking: 'What about the colleges that all of you are planning on attending? Do they really allow these mysterious 'gap years'? You all are intending on going to college, right?'

Calm down. Take a deep breath. Okay, let's continue... Yes, we do intend to enroll in college when we return home after our gap year. Believe it or not, many colleges (mostly private) do allow entering students to take gap years--many even encourage it. This is not a new concept for students in Europe. A good portion of the students there take breaks before college, and the U.S. is slowly opening up to the idea.

If you have any further questions, comments, suggestions, advice, gripes, etc. about who we are, why we are doing this, or just anything in general, feel free to leave us a comment! We love to hear from our readers! We personally read all comments and promise to genuinely respond to each one. If you prefer to communicate in private, send us an email at terranaav@gmail.com, and we'll be sure to respond as quickly as possible.

And now I shall leave you with one of my all-time favorite travel quotes:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." ~ Mark Twain