Trying to Explain the Travel Bug.
Travel is not a prescription drug but it can heal a lot of things.
To do travel right, one has to accept that traveling is not an excuse to abandon responsibility nor is it an act of classicism to belong, at least it shouldn’t be. Rather, living without being location bound is more about your confidence in betting on yourself.
Not many years ago, our fore fathers bet on their strength. Then our fathers who relied on their walled, schooling education. Today, this generation creates an economy, betting on their world education.
Throwing caution to the wind is very daring as many articles would suggest but instead, throwing fear to the wind while traveling with caution is more sensible.
Better writers have outlined overwhelming reasons why people should travel. We can both agree there are enough instagram photos to show the pleasure of a new city, however, the glamour of a photo can be deceiving. It is easy to get caught up in the “coolness” of being “free”.
Being on the peak of a mountain posing with a wine glass can be very attractive. But before buying your one way ticket, dig deep into your core. Before venturing out into the big wide world, pin point your reason, it is important to know your why.
I don’t know how to play the piano. I don’t know how to be a newscaster.
What I do know how to do is say goodbye. I don’t know how to play American football, I don’t know how to skateboard. What I know how to do is go anywhere in the world and make friends as soon as I land.
I might not know how to tango, or how to draw, but I can eat almost anything locals eat — as long as I have a bottled water next to me.
I never really paid attention to Philosophy in school, reading Science textbooks bore me, but I can stare at a map or a desk globe for hours.
My point is, it is important to know what speaks to you.
My desire to travel is not so much for the fun of sixteen hour flights, free red wine 30,000 feet above traffic, or the expectation that you might bang the bangs off of a hottie in that tiny bathroom with no room to stand. The reason I want to go out there is because I do not have any life surviving skills, that is my why.
I want to know when the next iPhone would be released just like the next user but I would rather learn how to survive in the wild, not just watch it on television.
Now, it can be argued that life skills can be learned wherever you are, including your present location, which would be true but if I haven’t learned it by now, I probably never will — if nothing changes.
I want to learn how to swim, how to fish, how to build, how to repair, how to have everything even though I’m sleeping on the floor. I want to look at my life with a smile on my face knowing that consumerism, individualism, pride and excuse, were never major dictators of my destiny.
In the world of travel, away from comfort zones and known securities, your senses for survival comes alive. You become more cautious, more present, more aware. Life on the road has a way of putting you in scenarios that would build your mental strength and overall quality as a person. Don’t just travel just to travel use it as a means to realize your purpose.
When I chat with friends who don’t travel, I struggle explaining
the travel bug. The closest explanation is to remind them of movies where humans are enclosed in a time-locked, skin preserving capsule that looks like an electronic, see-through coffin.
For me, everyday life pushing a 9–5, is like being asleep for decades on a space ship. I don’t want to be asleep on a space ship. At least, that’s how I feel right now, knowing this mindset could change the older I get.
Traveling is life. It shows you everything wrong with your mindset and it reveals all the errors in your upbringing. It takes you in, shows you the real world, not from colored glasses but for what it really is.
Rather than jumping on planes because you can afford it or because of some movie, photo or any other reason tied to an external factor, travel because you’re open to see yourself improve, broaden your horizon, leaving behind the stigma of wherever you’re from and also because you have a genuine interest to learn the culture of the places you visit.
Know your why.
This would comfort you on those lonely days when you question yourself for the millionth time about what it is you’re doing. Knowing your why prepares you when that local looks up to you and asks you “what’s chasing you?”, “what is it you seek?”, “what do you lack?”.
The greatest wish I can offer anyone is to wish them the fever to travel. The tough goodbyes and the meaningful hellos. I urge you to use your youth to wander through the fields of curiosity, the wonders you find will not matter as much as the journey. But before you embark on that flight, know why you wander.
Live with purpose, for what is life lived if said life never include moments of being lost. As there’s nothing more pleasing than finding one’s self, who was once lost.
With Love,
Famous Steve.
