get me the f*#k out of america! - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

getmethefuckoutofUSA · 02-11-2005, 10:41 PM

Hey guys. I am in a dilema and I am looking for some real advice here.
ok, here is the run down....I backpacked europe for the past six months. i picked up a few jobs here and there. I am not back in america. I am 18, and have not been to college, nor do I want to. My parents want me to get my cosmetology license, I dont. I want to get my ass back in europe and continue the backpacking life. Picking up random ass jobs and making ends meet. I want to live out of my back pack and see how far I can go. I have 3 grand right now. I know that isnt much, but enough to get me started out there. I also have my boy friend out there and friends. So what the fuck do I do?
Stick around and go to cosmo school....be miserable. Get my licence in a year, and then flee off to europe, ultimatly delaying what I knew what I was going to do all along.
Or leave....NOW. Leave everything I have going gor me now. A new job, living with a friend that I commited to school with....

I have four months until school starts! help me!
I dont want to be here

**bluepea** · 02-12-2005, 12:44 AM

Alright, maybe I'm biased -

- but, I considered cosmetology school also. I ultimately didn't cuz of finances, but realized/had pointed out to me, I was way too smart for it.

Hell girl, if you have this much of a passion traveling (including backpacking) then DO IT!!! You have NOTHING to lose. What are the people at the cosmetology school board going to look at your records in X amount of years? Not to downplay that education or anything, but in all honesty - I toured the schools; I know its about enrollement.

What would you regret more???
You've already done it once before, continue on with it!

**zylah** · 02-12-2005, 05:04 AM

1) what the f is cosmetology? is that a fancy schmancy word for makeup ??
it looks like u have 4 months till school starts, i say do the travelling while u can. if u get bored in 4 months u can do the school thing otherwise keep doing the travel thing.

**bellelass** · 02-12-2005, 10:00 AM

Do it. Go. I hated being back in the states so I left as soon as I could. As for money, hell, you're better set than I was. I came to London at the height of the holiday season with $300 in my pocketbook. Woohoo.

**kingcrazylegs** · 02-12-2005, 10:59 AM

Yea, go for it. Sounds like what you really want to do, so why not?

**TimmyJames1976** · 02-12-2005, 11:18 AM

Wow, I wish I had a pair when I was your age. I floated around here in the US doing nothing and taking a class here or there before i finally went to school full time for a degree in which I wanted, but it is not very useful. A trade is always good, but be careful, if it's your parents choice of education and not yours, you will either never finish, or you will finish and hate it. I say either keep up the travels or pick a route of education that best suits you, not your parents. Also, since you are young, and seem to be ahead as far as finances go, be preparred for debt if you go the school route. It sux. I have to spend the next year or two, plus the all of last year, digging myself out of a hole. Last but not least, don't over thing the situation, you will only confues yourself or end up rationalizing, so take a day, don't talk to anyone else, and just think it through, and whatever you then decide, then do that. As long as you stay ahead in the $ column you will be okay. And don't forget, have fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rjt98 · 02-12-2005, 11:53 AM

Do it... if in a few years you decide you want to come back to the states and go to school then that option will still be available. If you go to school now it will be harder to get to europe after since you will have no money.

Im thinking about doing the same thing sometime soon, i was wondering if its easy to get a job at random places getting paid under the table. Also after the 3 months of being in a country without a visa, do you become an illegal immagrant?

getmethefuckoutofUSA · 02-12-2005, 12:15 PM

Awesome. This web site is the best web site I have ever found. Thanks for all the advice guys, you are all telling me what I want to hear. Unfortunatly, no one understands where I am coming from(family/friends). They all think I am "immature" and "rediculous". I need to put my education and career before anything.
You know what I say to them, Fuck off. Who agrees that some people are too caught up in the life they are "supposed" to have, then the life they want to create for themselves?
Anyways....I just nailed a job this morning. I make 1800 a month. I am supposed to be there for 6 months...I start school in 3 actually, and my friend that I am living with is totally on my ass about it. She thinks I need to get my "life" started and go to cosmo school with her.... dude, feel free to stop reading any time. For those of you who are interested.....proceed.....
Anywho, I still need to make the decision. I think I am going to work for a few months, tell my friend to worry about her own god damn life, and take off.

And about getting random jobs, it's a piece of cake, really. I picked up two jobs without even needing them. It just sort of happend. You will find signs in hostels looking for some help. Also, if you are really in a jam, you can nanny. There are a million families all over europe looking for someone to "teach" their children english and wipe thier asses. But money is money.
And after the 3 months of staying in europe I did not get into any legal trouble. You can always go to switzerland and start your whole 3 months over...so I'ver heard. Or flee to western europe and start them over aswell. But this is all from hear say.....

berwinl07 · 02-12-2005, 12:25 PM

Hey, if I was you I would go for it. I'm still in high school. But I leave in August and am going to the Netherlands on a year abroad with AFS. I'm kinda in the same situation. My parents don't want me to go, they want me to finish high school right now, and then go to college, and then go for a semester to another country. But I can't stay here for two more years, so I decided that I gotta get out of here. And i'm glad that my parents are letting me go, even though they don't want me to, they know how much this means to me, and decided that it would be a great opportunity for me. So i'm going to go to the Netherlands for my junior year in high school 05-06, then come back for my senior year 06-07 and graduate high school. Then hopefully i'll go back to Europe after that and just travel, or move back to the NL. But i'm not making any plans for now. Just that I leave in 6 months, and that's pretty much it. (I know that I probably didn't help, but just thought that I just share my experience)

**LiveFreeorDie** · 02-13-2005, 04:24 PM

The problem with the whole culture in America right now is there is such a rigid expectation of what you should do with your life. Finsh highschool, go directly to college, finish college go directly into your cutthroat career, work like hell and have no life, get married, live in suburbia, pop out kids, get divorced, retire, die.

I think when your young (and maybe even when your not so young), you need to broaden your horizons, travel, meet people, explore, experience different cultures. You will become a much stronger and open-minded person. What is the rush to enter the rat race?? What is the harm if you go to school now or 5 years from now? NO HARM. Live life. You only get one.

Ryder · 02-13-2005, 05:45 PM

*sigh* i'm jelous. my parents suck. i'm stuck here. seeing as i am under 18, my parents have the final decision over anything i do(legally), i got 3 weeks of awesome hostel staying, meeting people, all that jazz last summer, i was hoping to do it again this summer, and their like: "THE HELL YOU ARE!!!" so...now i'm stuck here....and i'm probobly going to have to go to summer school this summer.

mom: so jake!!! after college what do you want to do!!!???
me: umm...i donno...maybe teach english overseas for a while? working at a bunch of club meds would be fun! or like....discotheques!
mom: jake....over my dead body....

that's basically quote for quote there. haha. my parents are "workaholic-rah-rah-america-i was in the military for 8 years serving my country-conservativs" haha, yea, it's been fun alright. yea, but if my parents will even shut the hell up then i'm doing the same thing that berwin is doing, i'm going on a year abroad to portugal for my junior year of high school. then i want to go to college in france for all 4 years, so i guess that's meeting halfway there, my parents get to send me to college, and i get to go abroad for it.

good luck! i hope it all works out for you! try applying for citizenship for the hell of it. france is extremely lenient to let americans immigrate because of world war 2 still, the only catch is that you need to speak french fluently and prove that you are inteigrating yourself into french society. i'm hopefully going to stay in france(with citizenship) after i gradguate college there.

**TheWills** · 02-13-2005, 11:42 PM

Ok ignore all those other posts (still love you guys

) short and sweet, if you go to school your obviously gonna hate it thus ytour gonna suck at it wasting nothing but your time and money, go do what yo wanna do and then go to school when you are ready, I met so many people over seas that just said I wanna go home now Im done traveling its time to go to school, just like that

**worldwidemike** · 02-14-2005, 03:48 AM

Tell your parents that a wise saint was once quoted as saying: "Life is a book. Those who do not travel read only one page."

There come's a time when there has to be a break with overprotective or control freak parents. If it is not when a kid gets his drivers license, it is after high school. If it is not after high school, it is college. If it is not college, it is when they get a job.

Sooner or later, you have to look them in the eye and tell them, "No. I'm an adult now and I will live my life my way."

Good luck!

worldwidemike

**kingcrazylegs** · 02-14-2005, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by worldwidemike@Feb 14 2005, 05:48 AM
Tell your parents that a wise saint was once quoted as saying: "Life is a book.* Those who do not travel read only one page."

Word!

foofiter · 02-14-2005, 10:39 AM

DO IT. GO!! I wish I did it before i started college. I am graduating college in May and I have a 15,000 student loan note to look at. I am now BUSTING my ass to try to pay off my car, credit card, and student loans. I am looking to start traveling in 2008 and go until the money runs out. I will still have 12000 in student loans by then so I will have to figure something out. I will get as many under the table gigs as I can just to extend it another day. I want to see the world and by damned I am gonna do it if it kills me! At least I would have lived doing what I really wanted to do. Good luck.

foofiter

Phinehas · 02-14-2005, 03:40 PM

Go and don't look back Live while you are Young that way when you get old you can tell all those crazy stories to your grandkids over the satillite cameras on your trip to Jupiters Moons

Yeah for traveling