Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the places and moments that take our breath away

I remember talkin to A when we were both in our first year at uni about careers and what we'd do after graduation. These words actually came out of my mouth: 'I mean, I don't want to travel or anything like that. I just want to go straight into a good job. What's the point in wasting time?'. Oh, how we change. I can't pinpoint exactly what made me change my mind, but it was a series of conversations with different people, I think, and hearing stories of other peoples' summers working in ice cream shops on Bondi Beach and doing Camp America. Now, travel and experiencing new things is without a doubt my top priority in life.

Since I opened my eyes to the rest of the world, money (a lack of) and uni has stopped me doing as much as I would have liked. However, the last two summers have been wonderfully amazing and I have memories that I will treasure forever of doing things that I could never have imagined doing. I never would've thought I'd one day say the phrase 'Guys? I'm just going to unplug the fridge so I can boil water for my brownie mix, OK?', or that I'd see the benefits of spending a night on a Greyhound bus ('Hooray! We won't have to pay for accommodation tonight'), or even that I'd start to crave Thai food every day. Being back at uni and having exams and my dissertation and the rain and the parents and all the crap that goes with living here and having this life, it makes me so sad and so desperate to leave.

I miss travelling so much. Little things come back to me every single day, memories pop into my head when I'm watching TV or when I'm in Tesco or in an exam and actually, those thoughts are the only things that make me smile some days. Today I laughed almost hysterically because the phrase 'compression sack' suddenly sprung to mind. The whole summer we carried all of our dirty washing around in one of those sacks, strapped to the outside of our backpacks. Remembering the sound pedestrian crossings make in Australia cheers me up. I wish I could walk down the street right now and smell durians or incense around every corner, but I can remember exactly what it was like. I truly did have the best time of my entire life last summer. Packing my stuff into a backpack and disappearing for 3 months was the best thing I have ever done and I can't wait until I can do it again.

It's the things that are different about life when you're living out of a bag and changing place every few days that I love. Things like never having any clean underwear and the pure joy you feel when you find an unworn thong stuffed at the bottom of your backpack. Going for days without washing your hair and sometimes without ever getting out of the clothes you're wearing. It's the randomness of the things that happen, that are just the opposite of anything that would ever happen here. It wasn't just about the places we went, it was about the journeys we went on to get there. Buying a ticket and hoping you know the destination but having no idea how you're going to get there was something we did regularly. I learned to go with the flow, to follow the crowd and not worry about what was going to happen next. Because whatever did happen, it was going to be an adventure.

I just miss it. I miss it so much. I miss seeing new things every day, being new places every day, meeting new people every day. Last summer changed me. It made me better. It made me believe in myself and what I can do. I used to be too embarrassed to sit in a cafe on my own. Now I'm planning to move to London by myself. Travelling is just the most incredible thing to do and I want to be a traveller for the rest of my life.