5 Reasons Why I Travel

Written on November 19, 2007 by Tezza

Monday’s weekly guide to Travel and Recreation from 4EvaYoung.com

I stumbled on one of Mike’s post on “5 Reasons Why I Travel.” It was exciting to read about other people’s reasons for travel and to a certain extent reaffirm my own reasons while realizing at the same time that it’s a very personal journey. We each have our own reasons and justifications with how we live our lives. So with that in mind here are my 5 reasons why I travel and I’ve also included a few of the reasons that have come up from this meme that might interest you.

1. Life is for living

Dan from The Lost Globe took the words right out of my mouth, “Somehow working, picking up a mortgage and having 2.3 kids doesn’t seem like living to me, that’s not to say that having kids, having a home or working are bad, just that for me right now it’s not what I want from life.” I too am not quite at the stage of my life where I am ready to settle down. It has been a long time dream of mine to do a world trip by myself before I settle down so while I am in a position to make this come true, why not?

2. To experience the joys and beauty of the everyday moments.

Life is made up of moments. Sure you can appreciate the little moments in your own backyard, catching a train to work or enjoying a cup of coffee with friends. But all too often our lives become a routine and we lose that sense of wonder that these little moments make in our lives. I didn’t want to be consumed with a drive to achieve more and have more at the expense of truly being present in the journey that is called “life”. So for me it is about taking time out and breaking my routine so that I can once more experience the wonderful moments that make up my life and hopefully cherish and appreciate the simple moments when I return home.

When I travel everything becomes new again. “Travel Is Exciting! You’re seeing new things, experiencing new sensations, tasting new foods. Think of it. When you travel, every single step you take you’ve never taken before. You’ve never had lunch at this restaurant. Never taken this road. Never slept in this village. And you don’t know what to expect. It’s exciting to people like us!”, says Timen from In My All Starts. You appreciate the little things so much more, the train ride becomes an adventure, the meal at a restaurant becomes a feast and your senses are heightened to the everyday because it’s new and fascinating. Boris from Travel Junkie describes it this way, “I love the excitement, that’s always in the air when traveling. I mean, most likely the “big” adventure won’t happen, but it just seems possible that someone hands me a map to a secret beach…”

3. Self discovery and personal growth

Yes it might sound new age and wishy washy but it’s the simple truth. “When on the road with a backpack and a map, you learn so much about yourself. You learn about your limits. Strengths. Weaknesses. You learn about what emotional stress you can deal with, what you dare, what you don’t. But you also learn about what you can be, but haven’t been thus far. You can be more flexible. You can live without luxury. You can accomplish things you wouldn’t dare do, even at home. It’s enlightening”, explains Timen from In My All Starts. The great classroom of life is out there in the real world and what better way to learn about yourself than putting yourself out there. It’s amazing to learn about your limits and you never are quite the same after that.

4. To live the simple life

To get down to what is really important in your life you have to first experience what it is like when it is taken away from you, even if for a time being. I can totally relate with Mike from Vegabondish when he says “After I graduated high school, I went through a consumer phase. My well-paying job at the time went to my head and I splurged on a fancy car, $150 jeans from Nordstrom, and other meaningless, superficial filler. In short, I was a yuppie a-hole.”

I did exactly the same thing, I was turning up to work to just pay off the credit debt I accumulated the paycheck before. I was buying stuff, going out and spending money I didn’t yet have in my pocket thanks to easy credit. It took me many years latter to realize the foolishness of the consumer focused lifestyle and the silliness of creating a never ending black hole in your finances. A great lesson travel teaches you when your living out of a suitcase or backpack is how little you need in life to make you happy.

5. To enjoy the freedom and independence that I’ve been blessed with

What’s the point of living in a free and democratic country filled with abundant opportunities if you are going to self impose exile on yourself by living in your own little corner of the world oblivious to how the rest of the world lives. Maybe you are shackled to your job and your mortgage too. But for me, while I’m still healthy and able to I decided that I might as well make use of my good fortune granted by my birth right to explore the world as a free citizen. “Just the way the States’ founding fathers intended, long term travel allows me to fully experience life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”, as Dave from The Lost Globe puts it.

There are many people around the world that aren’t in a fortunate enough position to travel, it just isn’t an option when your main priority is survival. I want to explore the world but also realize that there are people less well off than me, and appreciate everything I have instead of taking it for granted.

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