University Writing Center Travel Writing Panel

James Madison University's University Writing Center (UWC) will be holding their first travel writing panel to educate and provide an opportunity to practice this genre of professional writing. The panel is on Wednesday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Harrison 1261. The event is hosted by the University Writing Center and the Office of International Studies. Several JMU professors from a variety of departments will share their travel experiences and give advice on how to write about traveling. 

Ready, Set, Roam believes this is a great opportunity to engage with experienced writers and travelers. On a daily basis, we post blogs about a variety of travel topics from transportation methods abroad to how to stay safe. At James Madison University, there are many resources that help students become better writers. The UWC aims to help students improve as writers, not to edit or proofread papers. They transfer their skills, provide resources and offer great responses and feedback. They coordinate events on campus to encourage students to utilize their services and even have walk in hours. For more information, visit their website at www.jmu.edu/uwc.

Long-Term Travel Confessions

Blogger, DangerousBiz, confesses her disappointment regarding her long-term travel adventure in a recent blog post. Unfortunately, her sixth-month travel journey did not meet her expectations of falling in love with long-term travel like many of her friends.

DangerousBiz's previous travel experience consisted of short trips with other people, never a long journey by herself. In her blog post, entitled, A Confession, A Change of Plans, DangerousBiz describes her feelings of excitement before embarking on the journey. However, her excitement was met with immediate challenges that left her re-evaluating her plans after two months. Midway through, DangerousBiz found herself exhausted and running low on money, energy and enthusiasm. After carefully reflecting on her experience, DangerousBiz decided to end the trip early, heading home to the United States and postponing the rest of her journey. She struggled with the question of whether or not she was "giving up," but concluded that her decision to come home early wasn't giving up, but listening to her gut feeling. DangerousBiz recognizes that long-term travel didn't quite fit her lifestyle, but doesn't rule out travel altogether. She states you can still fit traveling into your lifestyle even if it consists of a job, permanent home, etc.

For those of you who may not be interested in spending months away from home long-term traveling, we hope you find DangerousBiz's blog inspiring. A large focus of Ready, Set, Roam is on study abroad, but this type of travel may not be for everyone. As DangerousBiz writes, there is no right or wrong way to travel and it is important to find the way that is right for you. Ready, Set, Roam hopes you find what works best for you and are inspired to travel, whether it be short-term or long-term!

Continuing to Inspire Young Travelers

College Tourist is a blogging webiste that allows young travelers from all around the world to share their travel stories. It consists of a team of writers that decided to make the road trip to the United States and hasn't left since. Their website has tabs from various blog writers, an about us section, exploring the US states and a place where you can sign up to write blog posts from them.

Their recent blog post by a student from the University of Dayton, titled 15 Ways Traveling Will Make You Low Maintenance really stood out to me as interesting and compelling. She states, "Because experience is more valuable than material possessions, and all those clichés." I could not agree more with this writer. Traveling is all about maintaining a low maintenance lifestyle while creating memories and experiences that will last forever. Some of her 15 ways of traveling low maintenance are "You can travel for weeks with only what you can fit in a backpack", "Walking  becomes your primary form of exercise" and "At the end of the day, you got to travel the world and visit some amazing places. And that is definitely more worth it than being able to look presentable on a daily basis." The post has several pictures of her examples and experiences abroad.

College Tourist has  other great blog posts that share stories of students studying and traveling abroad in many different countries. I would highly recommend to visit this website in hopes of learning more about tips, stories and the abroad lifestyle.