5 Things I Miss About Volunteering at a Hostel

It’s been almost a year since I first arrived to Nicaragua, and I’m feeling nostalgic for the sunshine, gallo pinto, and understandable Spanish with each passing day. For those of you taking a gap year, not going to school at all (because lowkey fuck the system), looking for a cheap way to travel between breaks, or you’re a recent college graduate like me with no clue what to do for the rest of your life, working at a hostel is the perfect way to fuck around for a bit and have fun doing it. I’ve traveled a variety of ways, from studying and volunteering abroad to au pairing, but volunteering as a hostel receptionist has been one of my favorite travel experiences yet, and here’s why:

1.) Not Wearing Makeup

It was hot as hell in Nicaragua during peak season (November to March), so it would have been a waste of a Smashbox tube to even contemplate wearing makeup during the day. I’m not the biggest cake face, sometimes I like to look attractive, but here I gave up. Staying at a backpacker hostel you’ll notice almost none of the girls wear makeup, and to me it felt really liberating. It’s not only wearing makeup, but not worrying about whether you’re repeating outfits or accessorizing… People are out here skipping showers for three whole ass days, so no one cares whether you fill in your eyebrows or not. I loved seeing natural beauties everywhere just travelin’ and being cute, and it only made me more confident to go bare-faced more often!

2.) Hot Backpacker Boys

I’m sorry, but I had to include this. I’ve traveled around Europe, and while there are hot people everywhere in this big, beautiful world, there’s a huge difference from the typical bro who visits Barcelona for a week before he starts working as a corporate intern at his father’s best friend’s company, and the cute Australian who’s taking his third gap year before starting a “real job”, but spent his free time building orphanages in Africa and cleaning up polluted beaches in developing countries after hiking Mount Everest and teaching English in Southeast Asia. Not to mention the stamina and abdominal muscles it takes to do all of these cool, off-the-beaten path things… I don’t know if I believe in soulmates yet, but if they exist mine is definitely out there binge drinking inside of a hostel at 2 PM on a Tuesday in the middle of Vietnam right now. I love you and can’t wait to meet you.

3.) 5-Hour Shifts

Where else are you going to work where you only have to work five hours a day besides at Burger King as part-time cashier? Working at a hostel for only 20 hours a week while traveling to exotic new places on your days off totally beats working a shitty minimum wage job trying to to save up to move out of your parents’ house. Of course some will say this is professionally irresponsible, but there are always ways to twist this into something meaningful on your resume. The key words “hospitality” and “customer service” will totally sexify your C.V.

4.) Time Isn’t Real

Most days I had no idea whether it was Wednesday or Sunday, but it didn’t matter because the party never stopped. At my hostel we’d turn up with the guests at night since we closed reception after 10 PM, and dang, did I have some fun nights. In Granada (and Nicaragua in general) there were only three places foreigners really partied at, so everyone pretty much met one another at some point during their travels. Of course I only worked there for a little over a month, so it was pretty much a long vacation for me, but if you’re deciding to volunteer long term, know what you’re getting yourself into because you will get a beer belly! But obviously alcoholism doesn’t exist while you’re traveling, so crack open a cold one, guys.

5.) Making Friends Worldwide

I’ve met the coolest people that I still keep in touch with to this day. People who tend to backpack and hop from hostel to hostel usually have a different mindset than most of the people you’ll meet in your daily life. I miss those buzzed late-night talks after an acoustic “Wonderwall” circle session on the terrace where we all admit how we’re secretly terrified of the future, how our parents don’t understand why we’re fond of going halfway across the globe for long periods of times, and how much interest we’ve acquired on our defaulted student loans, and our dreams to pay them off and conquer the world. The thought that we’re probably never going to see each other again makes for such intense and passionate energy that we don’t really get in our “normal” lives, and I miss that and the people I’ve experienced these energies with. The beauty of globalization is that social media makes it so the world isn’t so big after all, and according to my favorite German quote, “Man sieht sich immer zweimal im leben,” you always meet twice in life.