Pre-College Road Trip

neatoburrito
Thu, 14 Nov 2013 23:48:53 +0000

OK. So maybe I’m a lax parent but I could see me saying yes to this for my daughter on the condition that she take a guy with her, preferably a boyfriend. I’m not sexist, it’s just a fact that girls are far less likely to be victimized if they’re with a guy. That said, the reason I say yes is because when I she was 15 we discovered that there was a megabus that went from a train station an hour from our little rural town into NYC for unbelievably cheap prices if booked far enough in advance. Like a dollar! So she and her friends would go down to the city every few weeks during the summer. They had a blast and made a game of how little money they could spend. She learned how to navigated the stupidest subway system in the world and now has the confidence to travel anywhere.

If I were your mother, I’d probably nix the cross country driving and recommend a ticket to Paris and a website with youth hostels. It’s just safer IMHO and you’d make friends with kids your age from all over the world. How cool would that be? It’s not age or obedience that is the clincher for me, but moxie. Think of examples where you have handled unfamiliar situations successfully, where you have solved problems without getting flustered. At 18, you really shouldn’t need someone holding your hand.

But just the fact that you’re putting together a PowerPoint to show your parents hints that maybe you’be had a lot of hand holding up to this point.

Go to a few concerts in other cities throughout the year. Get your own passport (you don’t need a parent once you’re 16). I wasn’t with my daughter when she got hers. She’s had her own checking account and job since she was 15 so she didn’t need me. This is also the same kid I left at the security line in JFK at 13 on the final flight of the night while I got on a plane in the opposite direction. She had a phone and a piece of paper with the name and number of a friend of mine ( who she’d never met) to call and come get her if her flight was cancelled. The kind of experiences that lead up to a cross country car trip need to start young.

In short, start developing the kind of independence and self sufficiency that you will need (not just for travel but for life).