As it’s approaching that time of year when soon-to-graduate seniors get lots of unsolicited advice, I thought I’d offer some as well. Two years removed from life on the Hilltop, I can say with unwavering certainty that the best thing you can do with yourself upon graduation is to get the hell out of Dodge, and see the world.

Getting a job in the US right now is near impossible. On the other side, foreign countries’ economies are tanking too, so exchange rates are not bad. And thanks to a new administration, Americans aren’t quite as reviled as we once were. So it’s my recommendation that you go teach, volunteer, study abroad, exhaust your savings hostel-hopping. Oh, and learn to say “diplomatic immunity” in as many languages as possible. You will never again be this young and relatively free of responsibility.

After graduation, I decided that the real world, as it’s commonly known, just didn’t sound like much fun. I moved to a small town in southern Spain, where I taught English in an elementary school. I had friends who did similar programs in France, Germany, China, Japan, and Thailand. I learned fun new life skills, like how to set up a sting operation to catch whoever kept stealing my bike seat, and how to explain the rules of beer pong in Spanish. But traveling and living abroad will offer far more. You learn to see things, people and places differently.

Paris looks different than we remember it when we went to the Louvre with our families 7 years ago, and Rio has much more to offer than you probably remember from the bender last spring break. Morocco? Well Morocco will just plain scare the crap out of you, but in the best kind of way. My time there particularly affirmed my manhood. Not only did I get to run like a girl as an anti-Semitic tour guide chased my friends and me out of town at knifepoint, but I had the chance to blanch and gag when I unknowingly ate bull penis. But life, after all, is no fun if you have no great stories to tell at the end of it. Just remember to ask what you’re being served.

So push your comfort zone. You’ll stay in foreign hostels, and you’ll learn that nobody parties harder than Australians, and nobody travels more extensively than young Israelis who have just finished their military service. At the risk of sounding like Thomas Freidman on a rant, it is an unbelievably small world, and the more of it we can experience while we’re young, the better. Whether it’s an extended backpacking adventure or an indefinite relocation, you will better know a country, a city, a culture, a language and yourself.

The fun doesn’t stop when you get home – aside from lifelong memories, and a dash of wisdom, you’ll be able to scare family members. When I finally came home from Spain, I was walking towards my dad’s car at the airport with my beaten up backpack slung over my shoulder, my hair (which hadn’t been cut in five months) up in a bandana, and a nice two-week travel beard. My grandmother, thinking a dirty vagabond was trying to carjack them, screamed for help.

I work in an office in New York City now, which is fine, but not a day passes that I don’t think back on my time abroad. Monday mornings usually consist of me surfing travel sites looking for the next flight from JFK to Madrid. It’s hard to keep my wanderlust at bay. But who says you should, anyway?

So go buy a backpack, defer your student loans, burn through your savings like we’re not in a recession, and start growing a travel beard. You’ll be glad you did.

Russ Lindell is a 2007 SMU graduate living in New York City. He can be reached at [email protected]