I traveled 4,150 miles this month without leaving the ground — starting in Los Angeles, and eventually ending up in Miami.
In my short time here at Pepperdine, I’ve met more than a few adventurous travel seekers, like myself. So I’m sure I’m not the only one who traveled during the break. This past spring, I heard all about summer plans but heard even more nervous anticipation about spending this year abroad. I found myself feeling a little jealous of some of my fellow peers, as I’ll be staying here in Malibu.
This year is going to be full of uncertainty for them. And they should be excited about that. I hope it’s the same nearly overwhelming sense of uncertainty I felt while traveling cross-country this past month — the uncertainty that many others may have felt during their own summer endeavors.
It’s taken me a long time to realize that uncertainty is a wonderful thing. The benefits of creating and embracing uncertain situations can be life-changing.
I have learned that character grows within the incubator of uncertainty. And after you’ve made it out the other side in one piece, that character evolves into confidence. Confidence then feeds charisma, and with the right combination of these three things, the limitations of our own abilities don’t matter all that much anymore.
When it comes to traveling and gaining life experience, lots of students here are doing things right. What you can gain by going abroad, or even by venturing outside of Malibu, is not something you will get by sitting in the Payson Library all weekend.
My techniques for forcing uncertainty aren’t necessarily realistic for everyone. Traveling over 4,000 miles by train alone might seem absurd. Spending less than 48 hours in nine different cities over the course of two weeks probably sounds exhausting. But for me, it was gloriously stressful, uncomfortable and disorienting. After spending most nights of the trip in a cramped Amtrak seat, my joints were stiff and my sleep cycle was all but obliterated. Those discomforts were long gone within a few days after the trip was over, but the people I met and experiences I had are now a part of me forever.
This is the method that worked for me. It may not necessarily work for anyone else. But the thing is, you don’t have to go across the country; you don’t even have to go across the state. Go across the city, go across the street, it doesn’t matter. Especially if you didn’t grow up in Los Angeles. Do you know what this city contains? Everything. I’ve lived here for three years, and have only scratched the surface.
The top three things I saw on my trip this past month were: a staircase, a bridge and a big pool of water. You’re probably thinking that these don’t sound very interesting. But here’s the thing.
The staircase was the one inside the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was built in the 1800s without the use of nails or a center support. It completes two 360-degree turns, and is considered a miracle of modern engineering. The bridge was the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in New Orleans, Louisiana. It stretches for 26 miles, making it the longest bridge over a body of water in the world. And the pool of water was the Hamilton Pool in Austin, Texas. It was created when an underground river collapsed in on itself thousands of years ago.
If you don’t think you will be able to find something more interesting than an old staircase, a really long bridge and a murky pool of water in our very own Los Angeles, think again.
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Follow Alec McPike on Twitter: @alecmcpike
