We drove straight from San Francisco to Sacramento. In Sacramento, Ali and John dropped Peter and me off at the airport so we could fly back to Connecticut.

We both wanted to stay longer, but it was time for us to go back to engaging with the real world again. Peter had mandatory training for his job as an RA at Easter Connecticut State, and I needed to go apartment hunting and find a job of my own before the school year began.

Unfortunately, Ali and John’s journey on the bus ended shortly after Peter and I left. Just a week after our departure, the bus broke down again in Elko, Nevada. A tow truck took her to the town of Wells, where John and Ali learned that the repairs would cost nearly as much as the bus itself. The flew back to Connecticut. Anne Marie stayed behind–at least for now.

But just because the trip came to an early end doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth it. Any single moment of the trip was better than anything else I could have been doing with my summer. As trite as it is to say that I “discovered myself,” there’s no questioning that I’m more comfortable with who I am now. I’ve seen a lot of America, and I’ve figured out where I belong in it, at least for now. I’ve learned how I deal with stresses I would never have been subjected to otherwise, and I’ve experienced types of joy that I’ve never felt before. I know the euphoria of coming out of a sweat lodge, the rush of seeing the entire Grand Canyon laid out beneath you, and the relief of a shower after a week straight of marinating in blinding heat. I don’t know if it’s made me a better person, but I think so. At the very least, it’s made me better at being okay with myself.

Young people of America: travel. Do it before you have kids and a mortgage, or a career that you absolutely can’t take two months off from. You don’t need a school bus to do it. Just one or two very close friends and something with wheels. You can even convert it to run on vegetable oil, like ours; I’m told it’s not hard, and a friend of the bus from back in our hometown just did that with his own VW bus.

Don’t just go to one place and stay in a hotel. Couchsurf. Get a rail pass. Talk to strangers. Sleep in bus stations. Just get out there, and stay out there for as long as you can.

It may be uncomfortable, at times. You might not get much sleep, and you’ll probably smell bad. But the things you’ll see and feel, the people you’ll talk to, and the camaraderie you’ll experience with other travelers will more than make up for it.

One more thing: Thanks to the Center for American Progress and the wonderful Kay Steiger for giving me the opportunity to write about this trip, and supporting me. I was extraordinarily lucky to have their confidence, and I wouldn’t have had the resources to spend those nine weeks on the trip without them.

Don’t forget to pack light, guys.