Making the shift from an individual mass tourist to an explorer

As I've mentioned, I've never really gone on a trip without the comfort of being on a resort or with some sort of organized group. I have gone off and done side trips such as ATVing, ziplining, at other little mini adventures, but at the end of the day I always wound up back in my big comfy double bed with a belly full of buffet food.

I am nervous about venturing off into the realm of the explorer. There are things I've never needed to worry about before, such as organizing my own meals, carrying all my belongings on my back, and figuring out my own transportation. I will need to figure out all of these things as our trip unfolds. I'll also be working with disadvantages that have never really been issues before, such as not speaking the native language, and being a female in an unknown place. However, I am excited about these challenges and hoping I can conquer them.

I have always looked back on my trips as adventures, and I still see them that way. However, I am at a time in my life where I feel like everything is changing. I'm on my way out of my undergrad, I'm off to a new school next year, and leaving behind everything that has been normal to me for four years. I'm also entering what will probably be the hardest few years of schooling I'll ever have to go through, and all of these factors have come together in a way that has made me want to simultaneously hold onto the past while also creating a whole new adventure different from any I have had in the past. I guess that I want to experience something with my friends that will tie us together forever. I think that this is the reason I'm so set on moving away from mass tourism and exploring. I started off this blog thinking that this trip was just an adventure I was interested in  going on. I was wrong. The more I've reflected on it, the more I've realized that this is something that my friends and I are doing for a reason. The destination may not be as significant as the timing and the company, but it will be the place where we create these new memories.