Sometimes I forget how removed I am from the general population. To me, my everyday life has become a new kind of normal- it’s not unusual to buy a plane ticket on a moment’s notice or run out of passport pages or go months without entering the United States. Of course I know that’s not how most people live, but it’s easy to forget this reality gap and spend all my time blabbing about my trip to Fiji or complaining about French food.
Lucky for me, I got a much-needed wake-up call last week in New York City. Mike and I had volunteered to attend Meet Plan Go (link) and talk to prospective travelers. I’m so glad we did because this put me in the room with over 100 people who are currently wavering on that line between wanting to travel and actually deciding to do it. It was fantastic.
It was fantastic because I vividly remember being there myself, just a few years ago. I knew I wanted to do something, something different. I knew I wasn’t ready to pick a career, pick a city, to commit to anything at all really. I’d already had a taste of living abroad and I knew that’s what I wanted for myself. Even so, I had mega-doubts and fears and questions.
Last week at Meet Plan Go I got to address a lot of those questions, as they were posed to me by other people. “How much money do I need?” “What do I tell my parents?” “What about my career?” Things I’ve answered before, on this blog and elsewhere, but that can never be said too many times. It never gets old though- if there’s one thing I truly love, it’s giving a travel pep-talk.
“Nobody ever regrets traveling,” I said over and over again and I meant it each time. Nobody does.
You see, nothing separates what you do and I what I do except for our own choices. I live this life because it’s the life I want to live, not because I got lucky. This wasn’t thrust upon me, I had to go seek it out (and I work damn hard to keep it going). You could too, if you wanted. Or you could spend 6 months teaching English in South America, or backpack through Spain for three weeks or take a year to travel around the world. Whatever your travel dream is, you probably have the inner resources to pull it off.
You could, so why don’t you?
Based on my own experiences and the people I’ve talked to, there are probably quite a few things holding you back. Money. Responsibilities. Doubts. Fears. There are a million reasons not to travel, and frankly it’s easier to sit around and wish for it than to actually pursue it.
That’s why I started Twenty-Something Travel over three years ago: because I needed both to quell my own worries and to prove that travel IS an attainable goal in your twenties. To demonstrate why you should follow your passions NOW, and not put it off on some mythical someday. Sometimes, in the jumble of travel and business and life, I forget my own thesis.
Which is why I’m so grateful for the reminder. I want to encourage you to travel and I want to help you do it (not just long term travel either-whatever your travel goal is). I want to keep telling you about my adventures as well, but mostly, I want to know how I can be most useful to you fine people who take time out of your day to actually read my ramblings.
