Explorer Girl
She says it was something that lived in her. This energy that ran deep into the marrow of her very bones, solidified by a desire for new experience and the unpredictability of adventure. Distinctly, Lucy McGrath remembers first feeling this in kindergarten. Instructed to draw what they wanted to be when they grew up, while her classmates were drawing princesses and teachers (all valid options, she notes) she said she wanted to be an explorer girl.
The desire never left her. In 2012 Lucy was 19 and a sophomore in college. She was all set to study abroad in London, which already seemed like a big step, but then she was struck by another idea. The explorer in her wanted to go even further out into the unknown world.
“I was all applied and ready and suddenly in my head I was like ‘What if I went to South Africa? Wouldn’t that be so crazy? What if I did that? I won’t do that, I’m not going to do that, but wouldn’t that be like so wild if I went all the way to South Africa?’ and then I was like ‘I’m just gonna pull up the study abroad page. I’m just gonna pull up the application, wouldn’t that be so funny if I just did this application? I’m just gonna like, fill it out. I’m gonna do it. I’m just gonna fill it out.’ So really to the point of like ‘Wouldn’t it be so funny if I got on this plane right?’”
Taking a sharp turn away from her original plans, she did get on that plane and flew to South Africa, where she would study at the University of Cape Town. While abroad, Lucy would do and learn far more beyond what the classrooms had to teach her.
“I was gonna bungee jump off the highest bungee bridge in the world. Actually, correction, I was not going to bungee jump off the highest bungee bridge in the world, everyone else was gonna do that and my thoughts were ‘I can’t, I’m scared of heights. I’m too scared to do this.’” Lucy said. “But I just had this pretty profound thought that ‘you are the one. No one else has decided that you can’t do this but you. No one has told you that you are not allowed to do it. You know? You are scared but you can jump off this bridge. You can still be scared and jump off the bridge. No one has held you back from this but you. Me.’ I just remember that like really shook me and I was like ‘how many other things in life have I been the only person who really like was saying no?’ and I feel like maybe other people were saying no, but only in response to me”
This was the beginning, and from there, Lucy would be willing to try nearly anything no matter how scared it made her. She would one day try indoor climbing and even shark cage diving. Lucy would continue to travel to foreign countries and take in new experiences. Whether she had to do it alone or had friends to join, it didn’t matter, because while abroad she also learned never to wait for anyone to travel. Though it can be ten times scarier to go somewhere foreign alone, it is far better to face the fear then to wait for others to come along.
“We had a few breaks so I was able to do a little spring break to Mozambique and Swaziland and I took a four day weekend trip with some friends to, get this, go to Zambia where I would later be in the Peace Corps and that’s another wild thing in life because I was in Zambia sitting in the back of this like jeep with another student who was studying abroad and he said ‘I really want to join the Peace Corps and I want to come here and live here’ and I said ‘really? I don’t think I could do that.’ Little did I know, in two years time, we both would apply for the Peace Corps at the same time. He would request Zambia and not get it. I would not request Zambia and I would say ‘send me anywhere, God willing somewhere with flush toilets’ and I would be sent to Zambia. And I would be very scared but love it every day of my life.”
After this experience and after Zambia, Lucy has spent her time encouraging young college students to take the jump and study abroad with their schools. She enjoys sharing her deep love for adventure with them and fostering their growth outside of their home countries. Lucy now lives in San Francisco after finishing four months abroad in London as an International Coordinator for Northeastern University.
Sometimes we should take the seemingly craziest road: the road we put off to the side and swore we’d never venture on. With the ideas of fear and discomfort holding us down, it is an option we so rarely go for. Life is short and opportunities are rare, so when they do come around, it’s imperative to take them and run no matter how frightened we are. As Lucy says, it’s alright to be scared, but you are the only thing standing between yourself and the growth that comes from new experiences. Go forth, embrace the untamed wild.