CHESTER TOWNSHIP — When 21-year-old Matthew Wetherington went on vacation to Hawaii with two of his friends after graduating from Rutgers in 2011, he said he considered extending the trip — but he never imagined it would turn into an around-the-world odyssey.

"My buddies at college were looking for something to do," Wetherington, now 24, told NJ.com. "We all had jobs lined up after graduation ... but kept hearing of all these other recent graduates who are working 9-to-5 jobs that (weren't) fulfilling. I didn't want to end up hating my life."

Weatherington — who returned from his trip to more than 20 countries this past July — said he and his friends went to Hawaii after graduation, but before he left, he joked with his mother about how he might not come home for a while.

"When we got to Hawaii, this idea just kept snowballing in my head," he said.

And Wetherignton and friends Ariel Scott Dicker, of Caldwell, and Jeffrey Foster, Marlton, stayed in Hawaii for three-and-a-half months, working for their accommodations at hostels.

"They asked us if we knew how to drywall — we had no idea," he said. "We looked up YouTube videos to figure it out."

After Hawaii, Wetherington and his friends traveled to New Zealand, where money was a constant concern, he said.

"It's literally the most broke I've ever been in my entire life," he sad.

Wetherington said they were able to use money in Hawaii that they saved during college, and were able to do some saving by working an extra dishwashing and landscaping job to get to New Zealand and buy a van, and from there they washed dishes at a motel and restaurant once they were there.

"It was a constant concern," he said. The did a lot of hitchhiking, and even slept outside. "We were flat broke." BEGIN RELATED LINKS

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When they got to Sydney, Australia, he started working as a pizza chef, and then he got a job at a bank, he said.

Friends from home visited often, friends they met from another hostel would stay — vistitors would even help them pay for rent, Wetherington said.

"That ended up being a huge financial stake hold for the rest of our trip," he said.

The trio then went through Asia together, where beer was $.50 to $1, and then Dicker and Foster headed home, Wetherington said.

"After Asia, they were running low on money," he said. "It was my goal to get to Europe, so they flew home and I continued on my way and spent then last eight months in Europe before I came home, too."

Wetherington called the solo portion of his trip a great moment for personal growth.

"You're kinda of just left alone with your thoughts, especially when you're in a country where you don't speak any of the language," he said. "You find yourself not speaking for a couple of days."

He said he spent a lot of time soul-searching before he decided to come home.

"My family had no problem with me being gone as long as I was — not because they don't like me — but because they really wanted me to have these experiences," he said. "I did sort of feel a familial obligation to see my youngest brother graduate from high school and play varsity football."

As he's been home for about four months, Wetherington said he's still not adjusted to being home.

"I wish I could verbalize it better — it's just, I'm coming to a place that hasn't changed in almost three years," he said. "I'm a completely different person, but I'm being put back into the house I grew up in. It's a tough adjustment."

Wetherington said he's working on his blog — The Tuna School of Thought — while looking for a job and talking to producers about funding a feature film, as well as setting up a speaker circuit so he can talk to college kids about following their dreams and not always staying on the straight and narrow path.

As for future travel plans, Wetherington said he's hoping to get out to South America in 2014.

"It's up in the air right now, kind of like our last trip," he said. "A tentative trip that turned into a reality. A template in my mind that turned into a journey of a lifetime."