“Let’s make an oath – a solemn oath. If something bad ever happens and one of us dies, the other one has to just lay down beside the other and just stop breathing. You need to die in solidarity. Now spit in your hand – JUST DO IT – and shake. Good. Friends forever.” That’s the oath we spit-shook on within our second week of friendship. I met Miriam Nelson during the first day of Freshman Orientation. She had hair down to her ankles and my closet was filled with Hillary Clinton style pantsuits, making us naturalized citizens of the Island of Misfit Toys and natural allies. I liked Miriam because she was intense. The girl was a virtuous rebel – Robin Hood style. To me there’s nothing more impressive than someone who can break all the rules while maintaining a moral code and a regard for others. The only wellbeing she ever risked was her own – and I dug it. We started out small. Sneaking out of dorm windows, breaking in to construction sites, petty theft on campus (mostly cafeteria food and Gatorade kegs). Water balloon ambushes and kidnapping other students. Kid stuff. But we matured and so did our taste in adventure. Junior year, Miriam studied in Austria for an entire semester – traveling all over Europe on the weekends – and coming home with stories of Vespas in Cinque Terre and navigating the Alps on a snowboard and borrowed time. And then it was my turn. Last summer, I traipsed around Europe with just a backpack and a whole lot of broken cell phones. When we reunited this Fall, the wanderlust was alive and well in both of us. A strong believer in “Saturdays are for the boys”, Miriam went camping almost every weekend with our guy friends and I started testing out domestic solo travel. We made friends – West Virginia moonshine men, history students in Orlando, random guys on the train in Denver – and left each adventure with a greater appreciation of mankind and our own capabilities. Two months ago, Mir and I were laying on our living room carpet (less bedbugs than the couch), crushing Yuenglings and talking about how “being single just gives you so much freedom and truthfully I wouldn’t want it any other way because I love my life buthonestlyifheaskedIwoulddefintelysayyes .” And then we hit that sweet spot. When the cheap beer and clearance Halloween candy mix perfectly and the clock strikes midnight – ideas are born. We started talking about what it would look like to share all of the things we’d learned about traveling on a budget – roundtrip flights under $50, free housing and food in countries where you don’t know a soul, great prices on gear that takes your adventure to the next level. How could we get this information to people our age? Could we work with some of the companies we loved? Could this enable us to see more of the world too? We took stock of our resources: Miriam had a mason jar half-filled with loose change that I occasionally steal from for coffee money. I had a debit account balance of $13.79. But we both had iPhones. So, we began finding college students on Instagram and offering to help them find the best travel prices on flights while giving all of our best travel advice. And…people liked it. The more people we helped, the more our audience grew. And the more seriously we began taking our venture. So here we are now. We’re about to put our big idea to the test: in just two days we leave for Costa Rica, where we’ll live and work for almost three weeks. The goal is to show college students the possibilities that come with choosing sandy beaches over sticky bar floors and jungle canopies over bright dance clubs (we love these too but c’mon). As all of us 20-somethings approach spring and summer vacation and beyond, we’re asking: “What are you going to do with it?” But we wouldn’t be able to do any of this without our incredible sponsors, who we’ll be highlighting daily. Because of their vision, we’ll be learning to surf, sleeping in jungle tree houses, and scuba diving in both the Pacific and Atlantic. All on a college student’s budget (remember that $13.79 I had saved up?). So raise a crushed Yuengling can and some empty candy wrappers to being young and having a dream. Raise another to getting to live out that dream with your best friend. Thank you so much to everyone who has made this possible so far – can’t wait to see where this takes us.* *Anywhere besides Tijuana – that’s what I promised my dad.
