University life can be wild. All that partying. All those nights out.Making new friends and rushing around to get projects completed by deadlines that you could have sworn were ages away but have somehow promoted themselves to tomorrow. It’s quite a mad dash. For me, dropping off the education conveyor belt was the perfect time to realize I’d been burning the candle at both ends, and that ‘finding myself’ (as they put it) through a spot of travel wouldn’t be a bad idea. That’s when I realized that I had an opportunity to try on a whole new persona. My ‘look’ throughout university had more or less conformed to a clean-cut young man about town. I wanted a travel beard. I wanted wrist bands from festivals people had never heard of. I wanted to wear deep cut V-neck t-shirts and not look like I’d picked up the wrong thing in the shop. This was going to take some planning.

The eyes are the window to the soul

Wearing glasses can either be a gift or a daily chore. For too long, I hadn’t thought of my glasses as an opportunity to really express myself. Now, with travel on the horizon, I decided to be bold and select some retro glasses (see here for inspiration). The retro frames I chose instantly gave me the debonair appearance of someone who could simultaneously pass as an international spy, a judge on a cooking show, and a bookworm who has intellectual opinions on all sorts of intellectual things. This was a bold move. Vintage and retro looking frames say “hey, I’ve seen the rest, and I’ve gone my own way”. Travel and new retro glasses. The perfect way to find yourself while trying on a new persona in relative anonymity (unless, of course, you happen to bump into hordes of friends and family whilst travelling in Bruges or Milan or Athens … but the chances are slim). Highly recommended.

These boots were made for walking

Travel ain’t half harsh on the ol’ trotters. Which is a roundabout way of saying no matter where you travel and what you do, you’re going to be walking. A lot. My previous go-to style of footwear happened to be … well, whatever I could afford. I was a student. I had all sorts of nasty cheap sneakers and shoes, all of which were looking sorry for themselves when I came to pack my bag. I made the switch to docker boots. Again, this is a bold statement. They are chunky and hardwearing. Mixed with my retro glasses, I finally had a ‘look’. I’m not suggesting this look will work for everyone, but I do suggest you try a new look while travelling.