Grace C., a junior at Indiana University, lives to travel. She grew up in Hong Kong, has a house in South Korea, and island hops for fun. She cannot sit still.

"I only fly United in the US and within Asia I only fly Korean Air because I need to build up my mileage. Right now with United, I have three free round trip tickets and with Korean Air, I can redeem a free round trip ticket to Korea and back."

"I constantly call my travel agent. She hates me. She gets annoyed with me because I am so indecisive about my dates and I will only fly United or Korean Air. I ask her about specific airlines and I am very specific about which routes I will take and which routes I won't. Because I can't continue to stalk my travel agent every day, I have turned to the internet. I search for travel agents online who get bulk tickets. I'll search travel guides- like The Lonely Planet travel guide."

"I go through phases where I search prices on different websites. I get crazy and spent numerous hours searching where to stay, looking at maps, looking for different transportation, finding out what the shopping is like, what the nightlife is like, what kind of food the place is famous for….basically I create my our fantasy trip. I will stay up until 4 in the morning when I get on a "travel tangent" as my friends call it. I'll stay up until 4 and then sleep in the next morning and miss my classes. People can't get through to me when I am in the travel zone. I'll interrupt people when they're talking and tell them what I'm thinking of doing. Honestly, my friends laugh at me and tell me I have too many things I want to do. I think they're crazy."

"Whenever I am daydream, I think about where I want to go next. I think about traveling all the time. Right now, I think about my future trip to South Africa every day. I want to go to South Africa but I need to fit in Europe before I go. I'm trying to fit in Honk Kong after South Africa…it's kind of like a puzzle. But, mostly my day is consumed with thoughts of South Africa now."

"All the money that I earn I put towards traveling. I can't think of anything else to spend it on. I plan out everything. I talk all the time about going places, where I will be going and what I will be doing for spring break. I change my plans all of the time but they always involve traveling. I want to be in a gazillion places in the same time. Last summer I was torn between going back home, going to Korea to work or going to Europe to see my friends and to travel."

"I love the food, the beaches, the shopping and the sightseeing- I love it all. I love each of the different cultures of each country I have visited. In Thailand, for example, behind every corner there is a Buddhist temple. In Bali, every morning I would wake up and see green banana leaves on the floor in front of the entrances to the homes as offerings to the gods. I love Bali because it is so unique because the people are Hindu in the middle of Indonesia- which is mostly Muslim. I love Singapore because it's completely clean. It's disgustingly clean, actually."

"I will sacrifice class the next morning if it means that I will learn something new about where I want to go. Of course I have missed lots of school because of traveling. I missed a lot of school, actually. I know that school will always be there. Grades are important but I know that a 4.0 isn't going to get me where I want to go because I want to go all over the world. My networking is around the world. With school, there is not enough time for me to be traveling. If it means I could go to Thailand or Singapore I wouldn't think twice about leaving school."

"I want to die an old woman having traveled to all of the places that I ever wanted to see. I want to be that grandmother who tells stories to my grandchildren of my adventures in the paradise islands. I want them to know of all the places I've visited, the food I ate and why they should go everywhere that I had been."

Laura Beranek

Obsessions