Question How to cope with being housed up

[koob]

Hey y'all,
I'm new to STP but it's been really helping me learn from other travellers and hear some pretty epic stories. Anyways, I was wondering if anybody has any tips for surving a winter housed up and working. I've always been pretty restless, but this past summer I really vagabonding around properly and having to stop just when I hit my stride has been really tough. I'm currently in Montreal for Uni and i've been finding it tough to concentrate on anything for even an hour or two because of restlessness. I never really feel present because i'm constantly dreaming of hitting the road again.... I know there's no magical solve-all cure to this. To be frank, I think it's good that i'm not just forgetting what I love the most just for school, but nevertheless i'd love to hear what you guys do or even just if there's anyone out there in the same boat as me.

 

[Koala]

As someone who also finished uni during an incredibly restless time in my life, there's 2 ways to do it:

1) go to uni, do your work, go on trips on the weekends and breaks to scratch the itch, hang at the train yards, ride your bike or find a sport to get some of your excess energy out and endorphins flowing, try to meet like minded folks and fellow travelers in your city, obsessively plan the places you want to go when you're done

2) leave and travel. Uni will always be there for you to come back to. And it may be even better to go when you're a little older and you'd get more out of it because you'd have more focus on your studies. If you scratch that traveling itch, you'll eventually get a little burned out and look forward to a little stability and learning things you're interested in. Also being on the road taught me infinitely more social and networking and survival skills that uni ever could have, and I feel I would have been more prepared for uni and would have known myself better if I traveled for a year or 2 before starting uni than jumping straight into uni after high school.

One of the main reasons i stayed at uni though is because I had a massive scholarship that was only possible to folks going right into uni after high school. It would have been completely unaffordable to go to the school I went to if I'd waited. But there are also much more affordable schools I could have gone to instead if I'd waited, and I'm sure they could have given me similar experience and education.

Good luck figuring everything out, I've def been in your shoes before

 

[koob]

damn thank you so much for such a detailed reply. All of this is super helpful and I really really appreciate it. I've been grinding food deliveries on my bike so I can burn myself out physically a bit and save some money so I can hit the road come spring. I definetley agree that the little bit of proper travelling i've done has taught me wayyyy more than uni has and I don't think that's gonna change. I'm gonna try and stick it out for at least one year and see what I can make of it but no matter what I gotta scratch that itch lmao. Right now it's mostly planning plotting and scheming that's keeping me going but hanging around railyards more is a good tip because i'm hoping to hit the road come spring if I can save enough to not have to work.