What's Next?
by Erika Strand
July 3, 2005

Next year I’m off to Australia to face “the real world” for a year. Having just graduated high school, I have yet to experience living on my own… but I can’t wait. Before I came to Madagascar this season, I was really afraid of being independent. Just the process of getting to Madagascar alone showed me that I don’t need someone to take care of me as much as I feared.

I did lose my wallet on the way here… whoops! Which is unfortunate because now I’m living for two months on $400! But even that has been a good lesson in managing money, a skill I didn’t pride myself on.
What I feared most about moving to Australia was being alone; not having my brother and friends to lean on. I’d be lying if I said I don’t get lonely, but I get over it and now I know I’ll be ok. I’m obscenely excited to set up my own place and get a sense of my own ability to survive before returning to study ecology at Sarah Lawrence College.