World Traveler: Sixteen-year-old Sofie Carson spends her year working towards graduating early with plans for her future of traveling around the world

When considering her future, sixteen-year-old Sofie Carson doesn’t see herself sitting at an office desk five days and 40 hours a week, she sees herself traveling the world — so that’s exactly what she’s planning to do.

Carson has never been a fan of school. She always counts down the days to summer and feels dread when it comes back around. It wasn’t until the January of her sophomore year when she realized that graduating a year early was a possibility for herself.

“To gain all my [high school required] credits to graduate ahead of time, I took fitness for life the summer before freshman year and again the next summer,” Carson said. “Along with P.E., I need four years of English, so I took sophomore in-person English, junior online English [during my sophomore year] and now I’m taking senior English.”

For Carson, receiving all her required credits and being able to graduate early will be worth it for the trips and experiences she has in her near future. While she isn’t sure what she’ll study in college after her time abroad, she’s hoping she’ll be able to gain a sense of what she wants to do while away.

“I’m hoping going on these trips will help me find what I want to pursue in the future because as of right now, I have absolutely no idea what I want to do,” Carson said. 

Carson has a list of destinations with volunteering opportunities or personal traveling in each location she is visiting. She’s starting her trips off with a tour of Spain with East students at the end of May, then she’ll head to Zanzibar, the Philippines, Peru, Portugal and a Semester at Sea starting with Tokyo and ending with traveling around Africa. Between her trips, she’ll work at the Mission Road Animal Clinic to pay for her adventures. 

According to Carson, after all her traveling, she’lll find her way back to the U.S and will be heading to college at the same time as the rest of the class of 2024. 

“My friends and parents were really excited for me,” Carson said. “When I first told my grandparents they were definitely nervous for me, considering that I will be traveling alone around the world. But they ended up being okay with the idea at the end of the day.”

When Carson first told her friends and family that she was going to graduate a year early to travel the world, some were terrified, but all were supportive of the idea.

Carson wants to explore and experience different cultures across the world. She’s excited to see all the different people and hear about their stories, as well as seeing the different landmarks and scenery in each country.

“I’ve always wanted to travel abroad for a semester and stay with a host family,” Carson said. “Getting the opportunity to travel to all these cool places, helping kids around the world, spending a semester at sea and getting to see the different cultures that I don’t see in Kansas, makes all the preparation leading up to it so worth it.”