Kaitlin McCoskey – Staff Writer

Have you ever wanted to travel? Have you studied abroad? Do you want to travel after graduation?
Andy Stoll came to campus on Tuesday, October 19 to discuss these topics. A world traveler himself, Stoll was invited by CAB to speak to Gustavus students about his experience traveling and the value he has found in it.
Katie Ashpole is a 9th semester senior and co-president of CAB. She planned the event with Andy, and shared what the process was like. “This has been a long process. He was supposed to come last year, and three days before he emailed us saying he was notified he was a close contact of someone who tested positive for Covid. Because it was an in-person event, we wanted to make sure that it was safe for students to attend and that we could have a good number of them show up,” Ashpole said. “Stoll is here to talk about why traveling is so beneficial, and why one should do it. To combat any fear people have, as well as “the benefits of embracing different cultures and learning about different places and how much that can help you grow,” Ashpole said.
Another member of CAB who played a role in bringing Andy to campus is senior Abdel Mahgoub, a member of CAB on the culture and diversity board. Mahgoub verified that this event was supposed to happen last year, and that due to the pandemic it was cancelled. “Basically, the board that I’m on, they have the work from last year that they’re going to do this year,” said Mahgoub, and that the planning last year was done by “ someone else in this position alongside me, and they worked on doing this event in person. Katie [Ashpole] did too”. Overall, the two CAB board members were curious about what Andy Stoll’s talk would consist of. “I’m just interested in what specifically he’s going to talk about and his experiences,” Mahgoub said, adding that not knowing exactly what to expect from Andy’s talk gives it “an element of surprise”.
On Tuesday night, Andy Stoll came to Gustavus to speak. He was invited to campus to share with students about his life story and encourage students to find their passions and consider traveling the world. Stoll began his talk by saying, “I’m going to share with you four stories about my four year, 40 country trip around the world after I graduated”. Going more in depth, Stoll then described stories from his grade school and college days in which his plan for life did not go as he planned it to. From this, Stoll shared that he learned that these diversions from the path we plan for ourselves are okay. “I want to try to convince you that this thing, where we check the boxes off until we win, doesn’t actually exist”, he said. Stoll added, “My primary message that I want you to take home is that life is organic, not linear”.
After this, Andy shared the details of his travels, along with a video montage of pictures of him from around the world. Stoll described his decision to leave America and travel, saying “I had just graduated college, I was bright eyed and bushy tailed, and I wanted to change the world. The problem was that I’d never been in it. I was in a classroom. So, I quit my job, I sold my stuff, and I booked a one way ticket to China. I had never left the country before. I meant to be gone for a year, and I ended up being gone for four.” Stoll described his experiences from making Bollywood films in India, to farming maise in Zambia, to living in a Buddhist temple in South Korea. From all these experiences, Stoll said that he learned a lot of valuable information about what he wants to do in life, that “half of figuring out what you want to do is figuring out what you don’t.”
Overall, Andy Stoll had an inspirational message for students, encouraging them to listen to and explore themselves. “There’s a lot of voices in our lives. There’s a lot of voices telling us what we should and shouldn’t do. There are voices in our own head. The difference between you and me may be that I listened to the voice in my head that said I should travel,” Stoll said.