Your Network Is Bigger Than LinkedIn
There is a lot of advice given to young people about networking.
Go to career fairs.
Create a LinkedIn profile.
Send cold emails.
Connect with professionals.
Get an internship.
Build your personal brand.
All of that can be useful.
But there is another kind of networking that starts much earlier and is arguably much more important.
It’s meeting people.
Real people.
People you work with.
People you live with.
People you travel with.
People you meet by accident.
People who become friends.
People who introduce you to other people.
People who challenge the way you think.
People who eventually help you find a job.
People you eventually help find a job.
People you haven’t even met yet who will become important parts of your life.
That’s your network.
And one of the best ways to build it is through shared experiences.
The People You Meet Are Part of Your Education
When you’re young, you are building much more than a résumé.
You’re building a life.
And a huge part of building a life is figuring out who you want around you.
You discover this by being around people.
Not just people who went to your school.
Not just people who live in your hometown.
Not just people who are the same age as you.
You need people who grew up differently.
People who think differently.
People from different places.
People with different ambitions.
People who have different ideas about what a good life looks like.
Travel is one of the easiest ways to encounter those people.
You go somewhere new and suddenly your world gets bigger.
There Is Something Different About Meeting Someone Far From Home
Think about the friendships you’ve made in your life.
Some probably came from school.
Some came from sports.
Some came from work.
Some came from your neighborhood.
But some of the strongest relationships often come from moments when you are doing something together.
You are on a road trip.
You are learning to ski.
You are working a busy shift.
You are hiking a mountain.
You are trying to figure out public transportation in a foreign country.
You are sitting around a campfire.
You are lost together.
You are celebrating something.
You are exhausted after a long day.
You are laughing about something that nobody else would understand.
These moments create stories.
And stories create relationships.
Shared Experiences Are Relationship Accelerators
You can spend months talking to someone online and still not really know them.
Or you can spend three days traveling with someone and come home feeling like you’ve known them for years.
Why?
Because you’re experiencing things together.
You’re seeing how someone reacts when they’re tired.
You see how they handle uncertainty.
You see what makes them laugh.
You see what they’re curious about.
You learn what they’re afraid of.
You learn what they’re passionate about.
You discover what they care about.
You solve problems together.
You make decisions together.
You create memories together.
That is a much deeper form of connection than simply having something in common.
And that’s why shared experiences can be so powerful for building friendships and community.
Your 20s Are When Your Network Starts Getting Really Interesting
When you’re 18, your network is often relatively small.
It’s your family.
Your friends from high school.
Your teachers.
Maybe your coworkers.
Maybe some people you met through sports or activities.
Then life starts expanding.
You go to college.
You get a job.
You move somewhere new.
You travel.
You join organizations.
You meet roommates.
You meet coworkers.
You meet your friends’ friends.
You meet people from different industries.
Your world starts becoming much bigger.
This is one of the most exciting parts of being in your late teens and early 20s.
You are not just figuring out what you want to do.
You are figuring out who you want to do it with.
You Don’t Know Who Is Going to Matter Yet
This is something young people don’t always realize.
The person sitting next to you at work might eventually become your business partner.
The person you meet traveling might become your best friend.
Your roommate might introduce you to the person who gets you your first real job.
The coworker you barely know might move across the country and become part of your life years later.
Someone you meet for one season might eventually become someone you call every week.
You have no idea.
That’s the point.
You can’t predict your network.
You have to build it.
And you build it by putting yourself in places where you can meet people.
This Is Why Going Somewhere New Matters
Moving somewhere you’ve never lived before can feel intimidating.
You don’t know anyone.
You don’t know the best restaurants.
You don’t know where to go on a Saturday night.
You don’t know how anything works.
But there is something incredibly valuable about starting from zero.
You have to introduce yourself.
You have to ask questions.
You have to say yes.
You have to figure things out.
You have to meet people.
You have to build a little community for yourself.
And that process makes you more capable.
You realize that you can walk into a new place and create a life.
That is a powerful thing to learn when you’re young.
Travel Can Turn Strangers Into Friends
One of the best things about traveling when you’re young is that there are usually other people doing exactly the same thing.
They’re looking for adventure.
They’re looking for friends.
They’re trying something new.
They’re figuring themselves out.
They’re interested in seeing the world.
They might not know anyone either.
That creates an immediate point of connection.
You don’t have to invent a reason to talk to them.
You already have one.
“Where are you from?”
“How long are you here?”
“Where are you working?”
“Have you been here before?”
“Do you want to go hiking?”
“Want to grab dinner?”
That’s how friendships start.
Not with a networking strategy.
With a conversation.
Work Can Be One of the Best Ways to Build Community
This is another reason working somewhere new can be so powerful.
You don’t just move to a destination.
You become part of a team.
You see the same people every day.
You work toward the same goal.
You deal with the same customers.
You survive the same busy shifts.
You celebrate the same wins.
You complain about the same manager.
You laugh about the same ridiculous things that happened at work.
You go out together after your shift.
You explore together on your days off.
Suddenly, the people you met as coworkers become your community.
This is one of the reasons seasonal work can be such a unique experience for young adults.
You get the adventure of going somewhere new with the built-in social structure of a workplace.
Community Doesn’t Just Happen
A lot of young people feel lonely.
And sometimes the advice they get is simply, “Put yourself out there.”
That’s true, but it’s not particularly helpful.
Where?
How?
With whom?
What are you supposed to do?
This is where shared experiences become important.
Instead of trying to meet people for the sake of meeting people, do something.
Join a team. Take a class. Get a job. Volunteer. Travel. Go hiking. Learn to ski. Join a club. Move somewhere new. Work at a resort. Take an adventure.
When you have something you’re doing together, connection becomes much more natural.
You don’t have to force friendship.
You just have to create opportunities for it to happen.
Your Network Isn’t Just Professional
When people talk about networking, they usually mean careers.
But your network is so much more than that.
Your network is the people who know you.
The people who encourage you.
The people who teach you things.
The people who introduce you to opportunities.
The people who invite you somewhere.
The people who challenge you.
The people who make you laugh.
The people who know someone who knows someone.
The people who are there when things get difficult.
Your social network and your professional network aren’t really separate.
They’re connected.
The friend you make at 19 might help shape your career at 29.
The coworker you meet at 20 might become a lifelong friend.
The person you meet traveling might introduce you to an entirely new industry.
You don’t know where relationships will lead.
You don’t need to.
Stop Thinking of Networking as Collecting Contacts
A network isn’t a spreadsheet.
It’s not 500 LinkedIn connections.
It’s not business cards in a drawer.
It’s not a list of people you can ask for something.
A real network is made up of relationships.
And relationships require time.
They require trust.
They require shared experiences.
They require showing up.
They require helping each other.
That’s why the best networking opportunities often don’t feel like networking.
They’re dinners.
Trips.
Jobs.
Adventures.
Projects.
Sports.
Classes.
Road trips.
Long conversations.
Late nights.
Hard days.
Celebrations.
That’s where you actually get to know people.
The Best Stories Usually Have People In Them
Think about the experiences you remember most.
You probably don’t remember every hotel you stayed at.
You probably don’t remember every flight.
You probably don’t remember every restaurant.
You remember the people.
You remember the person who convinced you to go.
You remember the friend who got lost with you.
You remember the roommate who became family.
You remember the coworker who made every shift fun.
You remember the stranger who became a friend.
You remember the people you met when you were doing something completely outside your normal routine.
The destination matters.
But the people are usually what make the destination meaningful.
You Are Building Your Future Community Right Now
There is a tendency to think of adulthood as something that happens later.
Someday you’ll have your career.
Someday you’ll have your community.
Someday you’ll have your people.
But you’re already building it.
Every person you meet is part of the story.
Every new environment expands your perspective.
Every friendship teaches you something.
Every shared experience gives you another connection.
Every time you step outside your comfort zone, you create the possibility of meeting someone you never would have encountered otherwise.
That’s what growing up really is.
Your world keeps getting bigger.
Go Somewhere Where You Don’t Know Anyone
If you’re 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 or 22 and you’re wondering what you’re supposed to do next, consider doing something that makes your world bigger.
Go somewhere you’ve never lived.
Get a job.
Travel.
Meet people who don’t know the version of you from high school.
Give yourself the opportunity to become someone new.
You don’t need to have a five-year plan.
You don’t need to know exactly what career you want.
You don’t need to know who your best friends will be.
You just need to start putting yourself in places where interesting things can happen.
Because you never know who you’ll meet.
And you never know what that person might eventually mean to your life.
Your Next Adventure Could Become Your Next Community
At AdventureEXP, we believe travel is about more than seeing new places.
It’s about living somewhere new.
Working alongside other young adults.
Sharing experiences.
Learning how to be independent.
Building friendships.
Meeting people from different backgrounds.
Trying things you’ve never tried before.
And becoming part of a community, even if it’s only for a season.
That’s why our Destination Work Programs are built around more than simply finding you a job.
The goal is to give young people a way to work, earn money, travel, develop real-world skills and build relationships while experiencing somewhere new.
Because when you’re young, the most valuable thing you might bring home isn’t a souvenir.
It might be a friend.
A mentor.
A future coworker.
A future business partner.
A new perspective.
Or simply the knowledge that there are thousands of interesting people out there waiting to become part of your story.
Your network starts with the people you meet.
Your community starts with the people you choose to experience life with.
So go somewhere.
Do something difficult.
Try something new.
Talk to strangers.
Say yes.
Build something together.
You have the rest of your life to stay connected online.
