After college, i really wanted to study abroad. I took a job out of school as a newspaper reporter for a small local paper in colorado. My starting salary was 21 thousand dollars per year. Over the span of three years, i'd saved essentially one year's worth of income. Once i did that, i had enough that i felt confidently and i felt confident enough to be able to buy a one way plane ticket to cairo, egypt. And then at that point, i spent the next two years living out of a back pack, traveling around.