The travel bug is a mysterious thing. Some people are born with it, some get bit by it suddenly while living their day-to-day lives, and most people never experience it at all. When the idea of long-term travel first enters your head, you might dismiss it. You might wonder if it’s really possible, if it’s really for you. You could be on the fence about traveling. Here are some reasons to do it:
- Take a break from your 9 to 5. Live by your own schedule for a while. When traveling, you can wake up and turn in whenever you want to, and since you are not trying to cram every sight and landmark into a two-week paid vacation slot, you can do everything at your own pace. You are your own boss.
- Try some new food. At home you are exposed to the same foods and beverages over and over again. You might have access to a variety of foreign cuisine, but where is the authenticity? How would you like to spend everyday eating foods that have names you can’t pronounce? Maybe your favorite breakfast platter is out there in another hemisphere waiting for you to come try it. You never know until you go!
- Make new friends. At home, your friends are likely people you are surrounded with based on social structures. Co-workers, classmates, neighbors. On the road you will meet people from all over the world, and there’s a chance you actually have more in common with them then some of your old buddies from back home. Build an international network of friends.
- Learn a new language. I’m not talking fluency here, but learning the basic meet and greet, order a beer phrases in several languages is sure to make you feel smarter. What better way to impress your friends upon your return than to take them out to that Thai restaurant and place your order in Thai? Or walk into that Italian deli around the corner and impress some neighbors by asking for some cold cuts in Italian? Sounds good to me…
- Find your paradise. We all hear about those typical vacation spots. But who ever uses their vacation time to go to Micronesia? While rambling around the globe you may find that perfect new vacation spot that nobody knows about, and you can make return visits there all the way into your golden years.
- Gain a new perspective. We see the world based on the way we’re brought up in it, but this is only one of many ways to see it. If you get out and travel, you’ll meet people from many walks of life and a huge variety of living situations. You’ll see the world in person, not filtered through an HD screen into your living world. You can draw your own conclusions, and come back feeling a little wiser.
- Give your grandkids some stories. Travel with a notebook. Write down what you see, what you eat, who you meet, and how you feel. You are going to have a heap of stories to tell for the rest of your life. Stories that you can pass down to the next generation, and the next after that. Everybody loves the old-timer in the bar that seems to have a hundred stories, each one crazier than the last. I want you to be that old timer.
There are really an infinite amount of reasons to travel. Everybody’s are different. In the end it all boils down to that little friend we call the travel bug. Either you have it or you don’t. If you do have it, please, don’t ignore it. Let it bite.
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