From Backpacking to Study Abroad as Online Student
- kiaranemeth
- Dec 18, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Feb 13
This is my personal Story
Gap Year, AuPair, Backpacking, University, Job? When you finish school, just after your graduation, thats when life becomes more interesting but also challenging. Who am I? Where do I want to go? What do I want to do in my life? Questions which you start to look for an answer to. In this Blog I share my personal story on what I did after graduation and the road that took me to where I am now.
I have been lucky enough to be born into a family that loves and supports travelling. Since I was a little girl I have spent most of my school holidays somewhere in Europe with my parents and sister.
We started by travelling to Croatia and rented one of these tiny houses on a campground. Later on my parents bought a camping trailer and even later switched to a small camper van.
I´ve spend many summer holidays in Croatia but we eventually travelled around Europe when we got the camper van. From Sardinia in Italy, Budapest in Hungary, Sarajevo in Bosnia & Herzegovina to Barcelona in Spain. We put many kilometers on that camper van but also travelled by plane to the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and more. In 2017 I attended an international soccer and language camp close to London and in 2019 an international youth camp in Greece where we had to talk english as half of the children were german and half greek.
So as you can see travelling has always been part of my life. When I came closer to the date of my graduation I had to think about my future. My father was on a six week holiday in Australia when I was about five years old and since that day I wanted to travel to Australia myself. Doing a Work and Travel there was the easiest way to fulfill this wish so I bought my ticket to Melbourne in February 2022 straight after the australian borders opened again after covid. I remember how I was jumping around the house being happy about actually making my dream come true. Back than I just planed to be abroad for one year and come back to Germany to start working in a job. As a really organised person I applied for a job before leaving Germany so that I could start to work after I come back from my travels straight away and while being abroad I could focus on my travels and don´t have to worry about it anymore.
So with that dream of my gap year in Australia in mind I finished my last year of school and graduated on a Friday in July 2022.
Afterwards I started to work in a big german company in the production for three months to safe up some money for my travels and by the end of september, the 29.09.2022 I took my first flight overseas all by myself.
And honestly I was really scared. After I made it through security check and was sitting at my gate to take off all alone I started crying. I was overwhelmed by the emotions that I was feeling in that moment because starting this trip was scary. Being 19 years old and leaving to the other side of the world is a big step at that age. Actually at any age! Leaving your safe space for the first time to solo travel is scary. I have been travelling around Europe by myself before but my parents can´t come and pick me up on the other side of the globe if I mess things up. I have to deal with that on my own. But this was the moment I realised that the worst that can happen is that I hate solo travelling and I will buy myself a ticket back home. So I called a friend, talked to him about my feelings and after boarding that plane I started to feel excited about the adventure I was jumping into and couldn´t wait for everything that was coming up.
I travelled around Australia and South East Asia for six months and worked on farms Downunder for around five months. One grain farm, a smaller horse ranch and in an aborigines community. And I can tell you, I loved it. Learning new things about life and myself on a daily basis was awesome. And at some point I couldn´t picture myself in Germany for a 9 to 5 job anymore.
So I called my soon to be boss, as I had a job set up for when I come back, and told him that I am really thankful for the job that he offered me but I changed my mind and that I want to keep travelling for a longer time.
WOW!
For me as a person who loves to have a plan for everything this was a totally new feeling. I went from having a really good and safe plan to not having a plan at all. So I had to rethink about what I want to do with my life.
At this point I have been in Australia for around eight months and I started to fell in love with this country.
To repicture my train of thoughts that I had after quitting my plans: Think about me, laying on a top bunk bed staring at the ceiling and thinking about what to do next. Just travelling for a few more months or even years was not the best idea as I wanted to keep learning and educating myself. So I started to google: “How much does it cost to study in Australia as a german citizen?” The results that I got were overwhelming. When I had another call with my parents to have the usual catch up on life conversation I asked them for advice.
It was my Dad that asked me: “How about studying online? Maybe you find something to combine your travels and study at the same time.” So I searched through the internet for some online university and I actually found the right thing for me. What it is and how I decided on that is something for the next blog but I found what I was looking for. After several information calls with that university I finally signed up for a study program to start when I come back from my first year abroad. I started my life as an online student in october 2023 after landing back home at the beginning of September. Because there were a couple of family events happening during that year I decided to start a mini job at a small healthcare center with a gym, racket fields for badminton, tennis and squash in my small home town. While working there, practicing my own sport with dancing and soccer practice with my team I slowly started to get a feeling for how this online study system works.
But honestly, in the first few months I felt unmotivated, alone and totally lost. After coming from this amazing year abroad, seeing pretty places and meeting new people daily I didn´t like the life in cold Germany for winter. I slowly started to get better and finished my first modules of uni in February. This was also the moment when I realised I really want to travel again and bought my flight to Bali and back to Australia. Things got better and better back home when spring finally arrived, the sun came out more often and I was able to finally enjoy being in Germany again. I went to summer festival, met friends, did and ate anything that I missed while being abroad and tried to live life in the present moment as I knew that I will be home just for a year. The days slipped by and after I did a little social media detox to focus on my travel plans it was time to take off for my next adventure.
But it felt different this time. Why? Because I travelled by myself for one year before so I knew what is coming. It was still exciting as I will have to study this time as well. No more Work & Travel. This turned into Study & Travel. But I had no idea for how long I will travel. From travelling for a year to experience as much as possible to not knowing when I will be back again and try to travel with a slower pace to focus on my studies. Now it´s already been a little while since I started my next big adventure on the 29.09.2024. On exactly that day two years after I took off for my first ever solo trip I started my second solo trip into the unknown.
And this whole Blog is here to take you with me on this journey. To share my stories, my learnings, the challenges I face and to inspire other people. But also to show you the ups and downs of this nomadic lifestyle. The advantages and disadvantages that you can´t see on “perfect picture Instagram” and give you an idea of what I actually do in my life.
Thank you for reading this blog!
I am happy for constructive criticism and any questions you have. To keep up with my life on a more recent base follow me on Instagram.
But Hey - you don´t have to if you don´t want to ;)
Talk to you in my next Blog.
Greetings,
Kiara
“The Future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” - Eleanor Roosevelt -
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