Is it Long Term Travel or Running Away?
I’ll admit it: I booked my very first abroad trip only a few months after my mother died. I had just turned 20 and on any normal day I was dealing with a full-time job, an internship, college, lawyers, accountants, banks and real estate agents. I was worn, battered, exhausted in all ways you could possibly be exhausted, so I logged on to the Internet.
Within a few minutes of the endless clicking I often did to take my mind off important things I ran across a travel deal. Last-minute: Paris, under $1k. They didn’t have to ask me twice. I clicked away and booked immediately. I didn’t look up Euro exchange rates or buy a guidebook or try to learn French. I packed my bags and within a few weeks, I left for Paris. And after a successful and relaxing trip, a trend started. Jaunts across Eastern Europe, weeks lounging in major cities… nothing was off limits. It was my escape from the troubles of life.
Around that same time, when I had fought my way through college, sold the house I inherited and right before I found a job, I had the chance to take my permanent vacation. I could be nomadic, wander forever. For days I contemplated. Thought of what I could pack, thought of what I could sell. I would have nothing, no responsibilities, nothing to worry about, nothing to lose, nothing to give up.
But I chose to stay.
My visions of an eternal problem-free life, a life-long holiday were just that, dreams. You can never completely run away from life; it’ll find you, or wait for you no matter how long you take to return. And sitting home, years after owning up to the issues I thought I was too weak to face, the situations I was ready to run from, I wonder how many other people are running. How many people are sunning on beaches in Greece trying as hard as they can not to think about a lost loved one? How many Parisian expats are hiding a past riddled with debt? How many backpackers are nudging down a feeling of family disappointment?
Travel is an escape, but for how long and honestly, can we ever really fully escape, or isn’t it better to face everything head-on?
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As someone who has been world traveling non-stop for the last 5 years ( 38 countries, 5 continents on $23 dollars a day pp) I can attest that long term travel doesn’t have to be about running away or avoiding problems.
Sometimes long term travel is going towards something and creating a better life. We travel to bond as a family and educate our child in the best possible way ( we’re monolinguals raising a fluent as a native trilingual/triliterate).
I do agree that there is no problem free life…travel or not. We have had to deal with deaths, hospitalizations in foreign lands, paralysis for a year, etc. BUT it is an amazing life, best we have ever had and as close to a life-long holiday dream that one can imagine.
Today, due to technology, one CAN travel perpetually and enjoy it ( plus live,school and work ANY where) without escaping, but adding enrichment to one’s life.
Right now my mother is visiting us while we visit Asia for 6 weeks to help her recover from the loss of her beloved husband. Escape? I think it’s more just a good way to aid in the healing process. Sometimes it’s a really good thing to get a whole new perspective and travel can help.
Traveling for me, is both running away and an education. I cannot imagine not traveling, preparing for the unexpected, and being brave enough to share the thrill and disappointment. In one way, it’s avoiding the “responsibilities” of life- but it helps you be a big picture thinker, and that to me is priceless.
Great comments, guys. I agree that for everyone traveling can be different.
[...] learned how to mourn, how to be okay with being sad and how to move on in all aspects of my life. I went from running away to really enjoying my time away and learning from every destination I touched ground [...]
[...] don’t consider myself a quitter. A runner, maybe, but not a quitter, and I’ve been accused of sticking with things (ideas, jobs, [...]