Before wrapping up this post, I’d like to talk about something I’ve had on my mind and wanted to express.
A couple of friends have mentioned some things that I wanted to address:
“Oh man, I’m jealous, I wish I could do something like that”
- Go, nothing is stopping you but your own constraints and limitations.
- If you’re in a situation where you work and rely solely on an internet connection, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in your way. Save up for a few months, and GO!
- If you’re in a different working situation, with a corporate position, or a job that doesn’t allow you that type of flexibility, try and see the world on your own terms. Take a break or a sabbatical for a couple of weeks or months. Or if you’re transitioning between your studies or between two jobs save up a bit and GO! You don’t have to do it all at once, but I implore you to leave, go see the world, get out of your bubble and comfort zone. The world has never been smaller, and travelling has never been so affordable. Want to know my dirty little secret? None of my flights have cost me more than 350 Euros so far. If you keep an eye on regular promotions, leave outside of Big Vacation Time, and use a site like Kayak, Hipmunk, or Skyscanner, it’s much easier, faster, and cheaper than you’d expect.
“You’re courageous to go there on your own…”
- That’s one way of seeing it. The other way, the one I choose to see, is the flexibility that traveling alone allows me. Traveling with others means making choices together, picking places to see and missing out on others to stand together. Traveling alone, I can choose to do whatever I want, on my own agenda. And besides, between technology to keep up with the friends back home and around the world, local recommendations of things to do, and friends or friends-of-friends to meet around the world, it won’t be all that lonely, in the end.
- And finally, for the ones that I simply can’t relate to, the ones who are scared of being away from their family or their friends.
- You’re the group that I can understand but not relate to. These ties to your friends and family are not going away. And if they care about you, they will want you to go and have these amazing experiences. If they truly love you, they will want you to go and find you coming back a changed person with a lot more experience of the world. Don’t wait, don’t hesitate, don’t let yourself be caught up in the small excuses of day to day life. Time is the one real value that you can never get back.
Going back full circle, I just want to share this quote from “Shoe Dog”, that I mentioned at the beginning of this post:
“The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us, ladies and gentlemen. Us.”