The Delaying the Real World Book Tour

I arrived in Philadelphia to kick off the grand tour the night of the 2005 Super bowl. I fell asleep to a loud ruckus outside my hotel, which I assumed was a victory celebration of Philly fans dancing in the streets. When I arrived bright and early on the set of the Philadelphia morning television show to talk about Delaying the Real World, however, I discovered that the Eagles had not quite snatched up a victory. No one in Philly looked very excited to talk about anything at all, let alone a cheery guidebook about seizing the day. Oh yeah, and I'd never been on television.

The morning show went well (aside from the fact that the makeup lady treated my face like a Halloween mask, but hey, I'm over it. Kind of.). From there, I was off to the University of Pennsylvania for my first bookstore signing. God bless the Penn students for filling up those folding chairs! I talked about why I think the road less traveled is the way to go, and wove in my Cuba experience to keep it credible. The bookstore manager looked at me like I had a screw loose and asked me whether I had health insurance in Cuba. (I've learned to count on the Mom in the crowd for that question.) Thankfully, I was insured in Cuba, and for just a couple hundred bucks!

Post Penn, I headed up to Poughkeepsie, New York to visit Vassar College. During my talk, the head of the Vassar career center piped in her encouraging advice about taking unconventional routes after college. The students chimed in about their adventurous plans and shared ideas with the group. Hopefully, we all left feeling a tad less insane for wanting to globetrot through our twenties!

Next, I headed south to the Nation's capital, Washington DC, where my sister had planned a book launch party. While she put the finishing touches on our cubicle piñata (complete with an imitation Barbie seated awkwardly behind a computer), I ran off to the University of Maryland for a talk. The campus at College Park is both huge and gorgeous, and I don't think I've ever seen so many college students in daylight! When I approached the bookstore podium to start my speech, I noticed three very familiar faces in the audience: my parents and oldest sister, Katie. Nothing like the entrance of your family to keep you focused. Yikes. My mother soon had her camera out, and was snapping away.

The D.C. party was a huge hit, due to my sister Molly's unparalleled people-gathering skills. The girl is a wonder. By 7PM the bar was packed with twentysomethings who've done all sorts of interesting things, like coaching soccer in Peru and working in remote Alaskan towns. I was surprised to meet so many folks who are four or five years into the work world and scheming escapes. A bunch shared their big plans to quit their jobs, and use their savings from working for a few years to fly around the world. Just one question: Can I come?

From D.C., I went up to New Hampshire to visit Dartmouth. I didn't see anything but pine trees as the plane descended, but apparently, was glad to discover that people live there, too. The bookstore on the Dartmouth campus is charming, and fortunately, a pack of students took time out of their Saturday to stop by. My favorite audience member was an old woman who chimed in to share that she'd been "delaying the real world" since she was in her twenties, and the road less traveled had treated her marvelously. If I could look half as happy as this lady in fifty years, then bring on the white hair!

Next I went back to my alma mater in New Haven, where the Yale career center hosted a little chat on the topic of alternative career paths. I was a bit startled to see over thirty students filling up the audience. Did someone say deer in headlights? Afterwards, I had the chance to talk to a few impressive young ladies—one that was trying to find work on a cruise ship, another that was planning a research project in Cuba. What the students consistently expressed was this: the message they get towards the end of college is the exact opposite of the Delaying the Real World philosophy. They appreciate the wiggle room to "do something different" after graduating, but feel like they're transgressing expectations if they do. So I did my best to help those crazy overachievers chill the hell out. After all, I used to be one of them. Then, I lived in a communist country without a cell phone or watch, and took siestas galore. Enough said.

Onto Binghamton for the "Take a Year ON!" panel. Talk about a career center that encourages the road less traveled! The Binghamton career center gathered a group of young people who have done various volunteer programs and worked overseas after graduating. The token male on the panel was Mitch, a guy who quit his job at Price Waterhouse Coopers to teach in Taiwan for a year. Like the most expert delayers of the real world, Mitch found a way to parlay his overseas adventure into a full-time job. He started a company called Reach to Teach that recruits American teachers for Asian schools. Check out his impressive work at www.ReachToTeachRecruiting.com.

In Boston, a whole crew of adventurers who wrote for Delaying the Real World showed up. I looked out into the bookstore gathering and saw Britt, who did bird-watching in Equatorial Guinea, Emily, who did public health work in India, and Lara Kislinger, who participated in Project Otzma in Israel. They are a testament to the promise of the book's philosophy: Emily is starting med school in New York City, Britt is a venerated grade school teacher in a Boston school, and Lara is at Harvard Law School. Oh, and two of the three are engaged, which has absolutely nothing to do with delaying the real world. Though you might extrapolate the following: if your college love survives a year of long-distance, you might come home to some bling-bling awaiting your ring finger. Though I prefer to think of Lara and Em as, um, exceptional.

In my hometown of Buffalo, NY, I visited both Canisius College and Buffalo State to greet many familiar faces. My parents gathered friends and family at Off-the-Wall Lounge and Eatery, an awesome place that was founded by one of the young contributors to Delaying the Real World, Brandon Wall. We were thrilled to gather people in Brandon's lounge, as the mood of the evening seemed to match the spirit of the book.

After Buffalo, I had the chance to do a signing in New York City, my new home away from home. I spoke at Columbia to a combo of gainfully employed college friends, and college seniors eager to remain unemployed—at least in this country. One girl in the front row raised her hand and shared that she was going to make the most of her recent job rejection by doing something totally random. I had to smile because my Cuba adventure was prefaced with a whole string of rejections. Before getting the Samuel Huntington Fellowship, I got turned down from at least five other fellowships. I felt bummed, of course, but wasn't ready to abandon the pipe dream until it was certifiably impossible. Thankfully, it fell just shy.

The last leg of the publicity tour brought me to the Midwest. Starting in Ann Arbor, I gave a talk at the University of Michigan's Office of Overseas Opportunities. Kennedy gave his famous Peace Corps speech at this college, and the school has had a long history of international service. Due in large part to Bill Nolting, the head of the office, the University sends flocks of graduates all over the globe every year (including our fellowship winner, Alex Katona!). It was cool to speak to such a large group of students who eagerly shared their varied plans for working around the globe. After Michigan, I met up with my sister Molly at Notre Dame, her alma mater, to give a talk. It was a gorgeous day, so we took the chat outside. Sitting down in the sun, we got chummy with a group of Notre Dame seniors, most of whom already had firm plans for delaying the real world after graduation. For the most part, we were preaching to the choir, but Moll and I hoped we had a few converts in the crowd. Delaying the real world is known to be contagious.

Last on the roster was the windy city, Chicago. After hitting up the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Depaul bookstore, my sister and I were more than ready to pounce on the bar for the final Saturday night book party. More than enough beer, food, books, and former Peace Corps volunteers to go around.

With the tour finished, I'm faced with a question: What comes after delaying the real world? I've decided to delay the answer. There could be a sequel in all this. I've gotten awfully good at keeping out of the cubicle, and certain freedoms are worth a peanut butter & jelly subsistence.

Thank you all for your support.

"Dream big. Be gutsy. Dare to do it."

—Colleen Kinder