Author Spotlight
Caroline Wood
Fly eight hours to Ireland. Three weeks later, fly an hour to London. Take a seven-hour train ride to Switzerland. Catch buses in between.
In the past few weeks, senior Nathanial Caldwell has started running through the route he’s made and planning out every excursion and train path to get around Europe next year as he backpacks and camps during his gap year with his best friend and fellow senior Malia Baker.
Traversing across Europe wasn’t always Nathanial’s game plan. He was initially looking into the United States Marine Corps as is surrounded by family members and friends either in or retired from the military. This — along with physical and mental toughness — is what Nathanial wanted to get out of the experience, and what pushed him to consider joining the Marines.
“There’s a lot to get out of the Marines,” Nathanial said. “There’s the discipline, the whole kind of growing up experience, just how it’s, ‘This is how it is, this is how it’s going to be, you gotta get over it and just kind of push through’ mentality.”
Despite his family background, Nathanial grew hesitant when considering the modern-day warfare styles he could potentially face, and started to think about exploring Europe as a legitimate possibility as he found himself drawn to its culture, landscape and architecture. Once Nathanial let that idea surface, it was pretty much set, and he knew exactly who he’d want to take with him — his best friend since seventh grade, Malia.
Ever since they met while running through skits in middle school performance class, Malia and Nathanial have been good friends. They’ve grown closer over the years — even dating at one point — and have a lot of the same likes and dislikes. Besides being comfortable with each other and sharing a similar taste in food, Nathanial knew Malia was the best person to take with him because of their mutual desire to travel.
“I was like, ‘Hey, you want to travel? I want to travel. Let’s do it,’” Nathanial said.
Malia was unsure of the idea initially as she was planning on going to Johnson County Community College and interning at her aunt’s realty firm. In the end, her mom convinced her to go. She reasoned that not everyone gets this kind of opportunity and there’d be no other time in her life when she’d be able to do something like this.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which kind of pushed me the most to accept the invitation,” Malia said. “I’ve always wanted to go to Europe anyways so that’s just a plus and it’s with one of my closest friends so I know that I’ll be safe and I’ll actually be with somebody I like.”
The two plan to start their journey either late July or early August by flying into Dublin, Ireland where they’ll view the coast, see the Spire of Dublin and its famous zoo and then move their way towards Germany, circling back to the Atlantic Ocean.
“I’m honestly excited for it all,” Malia said. “I want to see sunsets on a mountaintop, meet new people, eat new foods, just all of it.”
Not only are they staying in hostels like most European backpackers, but they also are planning to leave the cities for the scenic countrysides to camp.
“[The appeal of European camping] has to be the nature, the weather, the different climates it’s got,” Nathanial said. “I’ve camped all over Kansas, couple other states as well, so I’m pretty used to, and kind of tired of, the United States weather which is kind of the same for the most part, but Ireland and the UK have completely different climates than Switzerland [and] Netherlands.”
Nathanial is well-versed in camping from his years in Boy Scouts, making it all the way to being a Life Scout — the second highest rank of scouting. On the contrary, Malia has never gone, so Nathanial’s going to be helping her pack and know what to expect, and teach her the culture of camping — leave no trace behind.
After talking about the trip with his parents, they agreed to let Nathanial use money from his college fund to pay for part of the trip, but he and Malia have also had to start saving up to help with the costs.
Since the start of the year, Nathanial’s spent three nights a week commuting 30 minutes to the Amazon return logistics warehouse and sorting through returned packaging to save up for Europe and plans to work there almost every day once he graduates.
“I’ve always wanted to [travel to Europe], and the kind of financial state that I’m in, I’m able to fund it, so why not,” Nathanial said.
Though they don’t have a set time to leave since they have to save money and uncertainties due to the Russian-Ukrainian War, Nathanial estimates that after they get there, hopefully over the summer, they’ll be there for five months, exploring at least eight countries for two to three weeks each.
Once they return, Nathanial is still considering going into the Marines or auto mechanics and Malia thinks she’ll go back to her initial plan of enrolling at JCCC or interning with her aunt, but Nathanial hopes the trip broadens their view of the world by exposing the pair to Europe’s diverse sights.
“Realizing that there’s more out there and just viewing how different people live is one thing I really want to take away,” Nathanial said.
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