Elizabeth Gasiorowski

What is your dream and why is it important to you?

Let’s all be honest, sitting in the library after hour four turns into day dreaming about sitting on a beach listening to music and drinking Mai Tais. Most everyone would rather do this than be in the Oregon rain all winter. A dream that I frequent a lot is me running around Bali with a backpack on my back and a smile on my face.

I would love to see a city every other day, have bonfires on the beach, swim in the ocean, do yoga in a temple, and live a minimalist lifestyle for a month. Being a lover of makeup, hair dyes, and fashionable clothing it would be a nice break to strip down and be the more genuine version of myself. I feel once I am done with my degree I would love to explore the world and myself. Growing up in a large family, only girl in a five boy family, participating in dance since the age of 2, and being in a sorority, I have always found myself in groups of people instead of being alone. I think being alone will be beneficial to me discovering who I really am and who I want to be.

How did others accomplish the same dream?

Being a college student without a job, I do not have a lot of money to be going around Bali in the luxurious way. I will need to backpack, save money and live minimally. When I went to my great friend google I was able to find some great information on how to go on a trip with a budget in mind. According to the website, Goats On The Road, one can travel around Bali on $20 a day! On the website it goes into detail about how you can find multiple deals on the island. The categories they discuss are accommodation, transport, food and eating out, entertainment, and miscellaneous. In greater detail;

Accommodation: This is the area that can depend on how I want to spend. Either I could spend $7 a day, or upwards to $300 a month. But because I want to backpack – I would spend around $10 a day for dormitory type living quarters.

Transport: The website says the most efficient way to get around the country is using Bemos. Bemos are buses that cost on average less than 50 cents a trip. Since I will be backpacking I will not be using this feature much anyhow.

Food and Eating Out: When I am in Bali I want to try all the foods they have to offer. If I wanted “Western” food, I would have just stayed home. My only concern about trying local places though, is that I have food allergies. But, if I learn the words needed to tell them that, I should be okay.

Entertainment: Who needs to pay for that when I am already backpacking around and that is my entertainment!

What barriers and support systems exist that may help or hinder your progress toward fulfilling the dreams?

This dream sounds lovely in the moment, but I do have responsibilities here in America. For one, my degree! I am scheduled to graduate Spring 2017, and have to take summer classes to fulfill that goal. If I were to take time off to go to Bali, I wouldn’t fulfill that goal, and that starts a chain of reactions that is not good for anyone.

Budgeting For The Dream: 

After budgeting for the dream I was able to see that this dream is fully possible if I am responsible with my money. After getting all my supplies I would be totally around $2,300. This might seem like a lot, but is completely doable. Because I am not a experienced back packer I would have to get all my supplies. The only supply I wouldn’t need is clothing, and thats because I have a lot of clothing!

My financial estimate for a flight might be a little off because I looked for flights leaving this weekend. Even though this doesn’t make sense, it was a good estimate for the most expensive time to go!