There are many arguments for studying abroad that get thrown around. “It will broaden your horizons.” “It’s a life changing experience.” “It will make you more attractive to employers.” I am not here to argue for or against studying abroad, especially since, like many NC State students, I have chosen not to do it for one reason or another. I’ll save that argument for lectures in college intro courses.

What I wish to advocate for instead is U.S. travel, which I believe can be very life-enriching for a college student, especially one like myself. I’m a North Carolina resident attending a college in my home state, like many other college students.

According to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, 77.7 percent of enrolled students at NC State in 2015 were in-state North Carolina residents. This 77.7 percent, and the unreleased but presumably similar 2016 percentage, has not left their resident state to attend an out-of-state college, meaning that they are most likely attending college in a state with which they are very familiar, potentially where they went to high school.

My case is even more extreme. I have lived in North Carolina for my entire life. I’ve lived within a 40-minute drive from Raleigh for the majority of my life, and until recently, I had never left the East Coast, going only as far west as east Tennessee.

Recently, all of that changed. A little over a month ago, I returned from a 23-day trip across the country, during which my three friends and I visited 21 states and drove over 8,000 miles. Along the way, we hit major cities like Dallas and San Francisco, stopped at major landmarks like the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam, visited eight national parks, lived in four different time zones, drove through at least two deserts and rode in one Crown Victoria the whole way.  

The point of all this is not to brag, but to try and convey why I feel this sort of trip was important to me, and why I think it could be important to you, my fellow college student. I believe that getting out of North Carolina, a state I do love but have seen enough of, was extremely beneficial.

While traveling the U.S., I saw countless different breathtaking sights, sure, but I also saw the millions of different walks of life that make up that oh-so-overused melting pot analogy for the U.S. From true-blue Texans to San Francisco hipsters to Salt Lake City Mormons, I met people with lives vastly different from my own. This, coupled with the amazing views of the ever-changing landscape of the country as my group moved from state to state, made my trip a sensory overload I will never forget, and something I would do again in a heartbeat. 

There were times when the landscape was so alien, I felt like I had traveled to another planet. In one instance, I vividly remember riding in “Vicky,” our group’s beloved and trusty transportation, through a desert in Arizona that was largely uninhabited for hundreds of miles save for a few random trailers and one dumpster, on its own, with its contents on fire. Alien indeed. I can only imagine how different the rest of the world is when the U.S. is already so unique state-to-state and moment-to-moment.

Sarah Wild, a career counselor with the Career Development Center, told me that she believes that students who travel, particularly outside of the U.S., embody qualities like “courage, curiosity, willingness to learn and openness to experiencing new environments, communities and people,” all of which are attractive in a professional setting.

While I did not leave the U.S., I do believe that my experiences during those 23 days in May made me a more well-rounded person, and a person with a better understanding of his own country. As far as helping with employment goes, this trip at the very least makes for a good conversation starter during a job interview.

If you are like me and can’t study abroad because your class schedule is too specific or the plane ticket is too much, travel the U.S. I managed to do it on a carefully-saved $1,400 budget, which seems like a lot until you consider gas, lodging, food and all the other necessities required for such a long trip.

It takes a lot of research and a lot of planning, but it is in many ways more accessible than you may think. My group camped some nights to cut down on lodging costs, never drove faster than 65 mph to increase our fuel economy and ate many turkey sandwiches on the hood of our car in place of nicer meals in order to maintain the budget. By the end of the trip, I felt like the trip was worth every penny and every paycheck it took to fund it. The price of this life-changing event was both priceless and surprisingly cheap.

Even if you have never left North Carolina and can’t study abroad, it is possible to travel and broaden your horizons. Upon returning from my trip, most adults I spoke to said that they had dreamed of doing something similar when they were younger, but waited too long and let their jobs get in the way.

As college students, we are in a position of immense freedom for possibly the last time in our lives. If you are a freshman, start saving now, before internships, summer classes and jobs prevent you from hitting the highway.