“When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego, and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.”– D.H. Lawrence
Let me croon to you, my paltry philosophy on why you should never travel. If all you want is to get beautifully scenic pictures for your social media accounts – don’t travel. You can find those pictures online. I usually get mine from pexel.com. If you think, traveling is going to be all fun and no sweat – don’t travel. You rather visit a game center and have all the fun you want. You want to run away from your current family and job life? – don’t travel. Instead, send your family on a 21 days trip to Singapore and quit that job of yours – problem solved! You have already seen the world, and there’s nothing new that’s going to electrify your senses – don’t travel. You hate deliciously mouth-watering food – definitely, don’t travel. Everyone is into traveling these days and so should you. NO. You rather Zumba, everyone is really into it and as a devoted conformist, its way easier to accomplish Zumba than traveling!
How many reasons did I give you to not travel? 5? No. 6. 6 reasons why you should never travel. That’s it. I don’t think I have anything more to say. The most exceptional and inspiring shortest blog ever and now it’s my turn to whack that one page in Guinness World Records. To all my envious friends, you deserve it.
Bitter. Cynical. Acrimonious. One of the many reasons why you should travel – it might turn you into a better person. As Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Travel isn’t what Anthony Bourdain (you are deeply missed!) presented in ‘unknown places’ in that duration. It is what he didn’t show in those other few hours (from getting to those unknown places and actually discovering the places for himself first) – the journey and pains he took to get you guys to enjoy what he presented is what travel is about…to an extent. Keeping in mind that Anthony had way more support and an entirely different agenda than you would if you choose to travel solo. In simpler words, what you read about the destination or the pictures you admire on a blogger’s site isn’t what travel looks like or feel like. The pictures can probably get a ‘wow’ response from you but ask the traveler, and that very picture (journey) will evoke a gamut of feelings that even words can’t do justice to. “Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy. It’s the minute-to-minute excruciating and uncomfortable excursion to those places and the feeling you get when you sit back and genuinely enjoy the view…the destination.
There are billions of people who travel each year. Why do they do it? Is it because they like it or they are not brave enough to be a nonconformist? Well, I don’t have an answer to this one. But what I do know is that traveling can be an enriching and life-changing journey but doing it because of inconsequential reasons that I have already mentioned isn’t the route to take. If you are content and super satisfied to breathe Bill Murray’s life in Groundhog Day – stay put. However, if you are looking to travel to take a journey within – about time you packed your bags, hopped on a bike and went on a self-discovery voyage.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”– Marcel Proust
Here is what traveling can do for you – if you do indeed choose to travel for the right reasons because then it will be a journey.
Travelling is more than a vacation or a break from reality because let’s be honest, reality is a brutal companion. No matter where you go, your shadow follows you. Traveling is a way to get in touch with your shadow self and uncover who you are. Life does begin at the end of your comfort zone, it’s a climb, but the destination is priceless.
At this end of your comfort zone, you get…
# Some ‘me’ or let’s say ‘alone’ time.
# You tackle every obstacle to your best capability, and you realize what you are truly capable of
# You meet new people.
# Learn new things.
# Gain new experiences.
# A journey that changes who you are.
The list is in fact endless that we could explore another day. But for now, the fact is, traveling can be a cathartic release and a transformative quest. Imagine what an odyssey of escapades you would have enshrined on the way back to your humble abode.
“And if travel is like love, it is, in the end, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.”– Pico Iyer
When you come closer to different cultures and their way of being, it shifts your perspective. It enables you to live vicariously through your experiences. It’s time you said farewell to your comfort zone and come up with a spur-of-the-moment travel plan.
After all, “Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God.”– Kurt Vonnegut. If you need one of those, travel away. Are you the next Jack Kerouac? Don’t forget to share your experiences with us.