Travel is escapism in its rawest form, but is it getting to a point where you are running away from life for that two-week fix every year?
So, you have your holiday booked. Thailand? Spain? New York? Wherever you’re going, I can imagine you have it all planned out in your head. As you sit at work your feet are twitching at the thought of lazing on the beach with a massive cocktail or hiking up a possibly active volcano. Every twitch you are brought back to reality as your boss pushes into your office, handing you yet another job which either you aren’t qualified to do (but he won’t listen) or you would rather just throw back at him.
You know your trip is only 7 months away, but you need specifics. Better download a countdown app on your phone. After installing a few, you finally find the perfect widget to place on your home screen with a little aeroplane symbol next to the word “HOLIDAYYYYY!”.
“Travel is escapism in its rawest form.”
Only 209 days to go.
Conversations with friends, family or just the voice in your own head get’s you even more excited. You just cannot wait to get out of this place and jet off somewhere.
187 days to go.
You see work as just a way to make money to go off travelling. It’s a pay cheque. Nothing more. Sometimes it’s a pay cheque which requires a month of back-breaking, miserable, unappreciated work which you shall continuously moan about on a nightly basis via Facebook or Twitter. How long can you keep this up?
99 days to go.
Finally, under a hundred days. Now you can really get excited. But secretly you can’t wait for it to be single digits. Whilst at work, you secretly google “Bikini Sales” and cheap travel insurance. It becomes quite an obsession but you are so excited!
That trip is all you can think about right now. God, you can’t wait!
1 day to go.
You have hung up your jacket for your last day at work for 2 weeks. You really don’t care too much about doing work, or even doing a good job on the work you actually get done. Because tomorrow you are jetting off to Portugal. Is everything packed? Have you arranged a house sitter to look after the dogs? Breath. It’s going to be fine. You find yourself giggling in your swivel chair or dancing around behind the bar.
“I better get a tan. I need to make these people I work with and equally hate, UBER JEALOUS!”
Whether you had the time of your life or not, it is the process you took in getting there. Let’s say for example, you try to take one holiday a year for 2 weeks somewhere hot and tropical. You have some good times back home, but there is nothing like your holiday time. Where you get to explore new places, eat great food and meet some beautiful people. Those two weeks are your highlight, where you are most happy. So, say you take 14 days out of the year, every year between the ages of 21 and 50. You are apparently having the time of your life for 406 days. Or to put it a different way; you are leading a life you aren’t completely happy with for 10,179 days.
Is travel one of the best things you can do with your life? ABSOLUTELY! Should you get excited about your upcoming adventure? HELL YES! Should you have to feel like you are pushing a rock uphill for the majority of the year just to release the pressure temporarily on a trip, only to dread returning home again? I think the answer is pretty clear. If you want to travel full time and make it your job to see the world, then do it! Whatever you are deciding to do with your life, make it the best it can be, whether you are a full time nomad or a full time barista. Be happy.
See travel as a beautiful and amazing thing you can do to enhance the life you are already living. Do this by creating a life that you are happy and content with. This is YOUR life and your life only. Don’t waste it away dreaming of a future that has yet to exist. Get excited about travel, make travel a priority, but try to centre yourself back to the present moment and realise that we are all travelling in some way or another. Life is a journey. We should never intend on arriving.
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