Spontaneity has never been my strong suit. Instead, my life revolves around planning and preventing the unexpected from arising. During my experience abroad, one of my goals was to step into the uncomfortable and push myself to let go of incessant planning. This trip was my first spontaneous adventure.

I woke up that morning without knowing what the day might hold and decided to look on the map and see what was nearby. At this point, I had spent two full days in Vienna and a day in Hallstatt, and I wanted to see more of the region. Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia, on the border of Austria and Slovakia, and is only a short, one-hour train ride from Vienna.

This was the first of many mornings I woke up without a clue what the day may hold, and I want to challenge myself to experience more days filled with unknowns. The unknowns have always been the most challenging seasons as I have walked through life. In my first year of college, I experienced a morning that, despite my best efforts to plan, started with a workout and ended in emergency surgery for an internal infection that could have taken my life. Moments like these are why the unknown terrifies me, but taking the time to practice spontaneity has taught me that the unknown is not always bad; sometimes, the unknown is the gateway to life’s grandest adventures.