Why We Travel: A Travel Writing Contest

Taking those first timid steps on foreign ground isn’t so difficult anymore. What took wealthy Englishmen three weeks of travel by coach and sail to the hallowed halls of Rome takes us pauper students maybe half a day or even less if you’re flying from London. But our willingness to take that first step, to tread on the earth of a place that has a history and tale quite different from our own, hasn’t changed from the days of the Grand Tour. We are, more or less, creatures of habit, having inherited our ancestors’ desire and need to simply take a walk toward the next hill, to allow the treads of our shoes to till lands rich in curious-grabbing otherness while seeding the earth with new stories that we leave behind. We travel for many reasons and the reasons are our own – our own to share and pass on.

This contest, sponsored jointly by Sliced Bread Magazine and the Study Abroad Office here at the University of Chicago, endeavors to provide you with a forum to share your reasons for leaving Chicago behind for an educational experience abroad. We are looking for stories that are your own, poems and essays that show us the interactions of a lively and curious mind with the site of your study abroad experience. As always, there is no winning “type” of submission.

Last updated on November 20, 2008 by The Eds