"You can be anything you want, even the president. You will know when you grow up", they told me. But they were wrong. Even then, when judging by the papers I became a person who is responsible for my actions, I had no idea what would be something that I would be happy to do throughout my life. All I knew was that I WANTED to be free. But this is not so simple. Unfortunately. The ropes that tighten you as a school-age child are hard to loosen.
NO PUBLIC TRANSPORT - NOW WHAT?
It was 2016, when I was sitting in the MCC bar with my best friends Leo and Ana, drinking juice. It was Friday, the day to celebrate that another week of sitting in school desks is behind us. Unfortunately, there is never much going on in our hometown, so on a warm spring evening we decided to go party in another city. There was no public transport to Velenje, and we did not dare to ask our parents for transport, as they would probably try to convince us to stay at home. So Ana and I, an hour and a half later, when we arrived at the other end of town to the exit to the highway, we stepped on the side of the road with our thumbs up. When we tried a new mode of transport for the first time, I felt the adrenaline boiling through me. What will happen? Where are we going? The initial excitement started to evaporate after a good 10 minutes of waiting, as we started to think about the possibility of being stuck right there, next to the highway. Before that, we were rescued by two young guys who stopped their steel horse 20m ahead of us. We quickly ran to them and asked where they were going, and soon after, a group of four young partygoers drove together to Hrastnik, where the party was that evening. The boys were even ready to drive us home after the party, and we left €10 in the back seats as a thank you. The experience was great, because Ana and I realized that there are other, more adrenaline-filled ways to meet friends.
TRAVEL IS EXPENSIVE – BUT I WOULD GO ANYWAY!
Finally, the year 2018 arrived, when, with the completion of my matriculation, the period of schooling came to an end for me. During the summer holidays, I traveled to Amsterdam with my friends Ana, Lea and Larisa. With the help of Couchsurfing, we slept for free and only spent money on food, drinks and tobacco rolls. That's when I realized that traveling is not expensive at all, and that Couschsurfing is not only an app that allows me to sleep for free, wherever I want, but also a platform through which I can meet amazing people who want to talk to me.
FOLLOW YOUR HEART – THE KEY TO SUCCESS?Packing your bags and leaving your hometown, no matter where, puts a smile on many people's faces. For some, traveling means a break or rest, for others a job, for others it represents various challenges that await them during research... We all like to travel, even if only from bar to inn. I myself saw traveling as an opportunity to get to know the world and what I want to become. That's why I traveled to meet as many people as possible, because I realized that I learn a lot more by talking than by reading. Sometimes I forgot the story of a person who confided in me, like I forget hashtags posted on Instagram, sometimes I imprinted a person's face and name in my head as the author of an interesting quote, and sometimes it also happened that I I said goodbye with the feeling that I had read the best book in my life. In the year that I took for myself, I visited all 51 European countries on 14 trips that totaled 128 days. On the way, I slept for 44 nights with the help of Couchsurfing, and covered 18,000 kilometers by hitchhiking. Apparently, fear really is the ruler of the world, I told myself many times when I answered with a smile to people who asked me how I was not afraid to travel in such a way. I don't even dare to think how much I would miss if I let myself be ruled by fear.You might be wondering how much it all cost me, and I have to say, not much. I spent €4,000 for all the countries I visited, which is an average of €80 per country. I earned all my money through the student service, so the excuse that traveling is too expensive doesn't work for me. During my trip, I learned that the kindness of people has no limits and that the world is much more beautiful if we accept the help of fellow human beings, and of course if we return it to the best of our ability. I also realized that at school they don't just fill our pockets with nonsense. I can really be a waiter anywhere I want, but since I also want some privileges while working, after a year of traveling I decided to enroll in college.
