The most important part of any study abroad semester is definitely fall break: those 10 days when Europe is study abroad students’ playground.

But it also brings students just as much stress as excitement. Even as early as summer, I was panicking about where I wanted to go, where others said I should go, how I’d get there and how much I’d have to pay.

A while back, one friend of mine said he spent an entire day planning out his time in Paris and Amsterdam, and he still wasn’t finished. Even now, days before fall break starts, people are still ironing out the details. They’re discussing flight deals, hostel stays, meet-up points, must-see destinations and more.

While these 10 adventurous days are definitely important to me, I’ve always been puzzled by why some people, including myself, care about them so much. Some could argue it’s the heart of your whole time abroad and missing it would be like putting a stake through that heart.

This mentality can add a lot of pressure, and fall break winds up creating this ominous feeling in the air, as if it’s a fear of limitless regret: If you don’t go to all the right places and see all the sights you need to see, you’ll spend your life wishing you had done things differently.

But that’s where I disagree. It’s not about where you go and what you see. It’s about how much you enjoy your experience.

The idea that a person needs to visit a certain number of places to make the most of their time abroad puts them in a no-win situation. There’s a near-limitless number of places you could argue are “must-see.” The Acropolis in Greece, the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling painted by Michelangelo in Rome, the canals in Venice, the red light district in Amsterdam, Platform 9 ¾ in London, the Eiffel Tower in Paris — the list goes on.

The problem with feeling you need to travel to each place on an endless list is that, given the limited time abroad, it’ll never be completed. No matter how much you travel, you’ll always keep thinking of new places that you “need to see.” Then you’ll inevitably have regrets when you don’t cross off all the destinations on your list.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t travel as much as they can, but they shouldn’t put their traveling plans on a pedestal. As the cliché saying goes, focus on the journey, not the destination.

Once I realized this, I finally decided on my own fall break. Through a travel company called Bus2alps, I’m traveling across Eastern Europe, making stops at Budapest, Kraków, Prague and Ljubljana. They’re not the most popular student travel destinations like London and France, but I signed on for the journeys they offered: exploring salt mines, trying thermal baths, enjoying a tour by a survivor of Communist Hungary and even visiting the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau.

Even if it’s “the loop less traveled,” it’s the one I’ll enjoy the most. After all, there’s no point in visiting a destination just because other people say it’s a “must-see.” Unless there’s a personal reason for traveling somewhere while abroad, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t see something. It won’t haunt you forever when you return home.

I’ll be traveling to the destinations that will really create great memories and experiences that last forever. That list might be a lot shorter and different from someone else’s list, but at least I can actually finish it before my semester abroad is all over.

Published on October 14, 2013 at 11:56 pm