Ask HN: I am a depressed student, looking to travel + just be, please advice.

Travelling alone can be depressing. Don't just run from your current lifestyle, add something to it. Travel with a purpose.

Stuff like 'Homes for humanity' and many other travel related charities can be quite expensive.

But you can travel and work. Not travel and hack, just work. I'm not sure what is near Atlanta, and what's available. But you already have fairly nice weather.

No matter where you go, $2000 isn't going to get you very far, flights to buenos airies as an example are nearly $1600 http://www.kayak.com/flights/ATL-BUE/2011-05-03/2011-07-07

Cruise ships could be interesting work if you're into that. I've worked in Ski Resorts for much of my life, and the first few years where you aren't focused on making money or getting ahead, but just looking for an experience were amazing.

I'm a believer in the greatest path to happiness is through service to others. Discovering your purpose is a big part of that. If you don't have a purpose, the best way to find one is to do something, anything.

I hope that helps, though it isn't a direct answer to your question.

Well, I can say that $2000 would not get you very far if you're targeting beaches in CA. You would probably spend almost that amount just getting there. I recently spent about $8000 on a full relocation to Santa Monica, and found a "cheap" place 4 blocks from the ocean. Cheap out there though was like $1700/mo. =/

Thanks for the recommendation. Miami had completely slipped my mind. Hope you are having fun in Australia.

As someone who successfully overcome depression, I would humbly suggest to read "letters from a stoic" by Seneca. After that you may think twice before taking some time off as a way of fighting you depression. You can also try to travel to places where people's living conditions are way below those you generally get in the US (instead of going to the beach and do nothing for a while). Guaranteed to change your perspectives about life.

Running from my current lifestyle is sort of what I am trying to do. I really can't think of anything else in the short term that would help, though I am open to suggestions. I did look into non-profits, but they want you to work for free, pay them application fees for stuff, which really sucks, if they had been nicer, I would have offered to re:design their website, but I really didn't want to offer any webwork upfront as I wanted to stay away from the computer for a while.

I am fairly good at web:design, but really that is not what I could call a purpose. I have dabbled in random stuff from photography to volunteering to build houses to skydiving, and I really don't find passion in any of that and I can't figure out why. Are there other ways to find what you love doing ? I remember a Steve Jobs speech where he says "...keep looking, and don't settle." But it gets disheartening after a while.

Thanks. Also, how does one get employed as a ski resort with no prior knowledge ?