Mount Vernon NOW

Adam Cobb ('05) - NEW ZEALAND

After spending the past 18 months as an urban dweller in Chicago, I felt the need to make a major landscape shift. Taking advantage of several travel and study-abroad opportunities at MVNU, I earned a minor in wanderlust before the end of my matriculation. Escaping from North America became my vision. I determined to spend several months migrating through the country of New Zealand seeing “hitherto unexperienced horizons of beauty.”

My sojourn is made possible on a minimal budget because of the backpacker-friendly infrastructure of New Zealand. In addition to seeing the sights and participating in some extreme sports (zorbing, bungee-jumping, etc.), I am laboring at several farms throughout the country. They are part of a network called WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms), and provide food and lodging to WWOOFers in exchange for 4 hours of help a day. Typical stays are around a week per farm.

This trip is mostly about self-reflection and meditation in the midst of rustic beauty and hard work. My goal is not to escape reality, but to find it, and I have not been disappointed so far. I flew out of the United States at the beginning of January and will be concluding my time abroad in mid-April. Upon my return, I plan to pursue a master’s in agricultural economics at The Ohio State University and to help develop programs that help combat poverty around the world.

In-depth trip information and pictures can be found at: http://journals.worldnomads.com/thecobb/.