The longest possible “sending the kids off to college” trip 🚘
I think we have all been there: our parents would send us to school one way or another, making a trip of a few minutes that seem to last a millennium too long! 🙂 Well, buckle up, because this trip just got a lot longer!
Back in 2019, I graduated my high school like many others and struggled to find where I wanted to go. After much consideration, I decided I really wanted to go to Estonia. There were multiple factors that went into making me pick TalTech to study Marketing. I can't describe how amazing I felt when the acceptance letter came! The wave of relief was honestly unmatched.
Then the issue of getting me from Mongolia to Estonia came up. Of course, like any sane person, I just expected a comfy 18-hour flight window seat (if possible) aeroplane trip.✈️
I had underestimated my father. 🙂
My dad during this time had been very very invested in this event that was taking root called the “Mongol Rally”. I would see him watching just car travelling videos every day and didn't really think much of it. Then around April of the year, he told the family:
“ We can make the trip to Europe and back with our Toyota Prius”
“ … come again?”
Thus he started to explain the idea of getting me to Estonia and my older sister to Germany for our respective universities. The idea was simple — it looked like this:
……not simple!
He was suggesting driving through the largest country on the world map and into Europe! We started the trip on July 19th 2019.
It was my sister on navigation, mom on songs and morale, me on food and snacks and of course dad on driving (the hardest task). The whole trip was amazing — I remember so many moments like how we got a bucket full of strawberries. How we almost ran out of fuel. How I had my first wine. How ginormous the trees were. How a guy in a bunny costume came and hugged me. How we stayed over at a very old grandparent's place and the grandpa commented “I know the garden is nice but I wish we could grow some meat!”
The most amazing 10,000 kilometres but 20,000 kilometres for my parents who went back.
But most importantly how comforting it felt being sent off by my parents because I knew once the trip was over I won't be able to physically see them for a year and a half. They really gave me the longest and best possible send off to my university trip imaginable. I will always and forever be grateful to them for this.
I am also writing this in hopes of you planning a trip like this for yourself someday. 💖💖💖
Here are some of the pictures that were taken during the trip:
If you wanna connect:
My Instagram: maggy.psd
My LinkedIn: Margad-Erdene Magsarjav
