To be a well-rounded person, you need to be open to accepting knowledge wherever you find it. I confirmed this sitting at my desk, writing a post, while listening to music on my headphones.
I’m an unabashed fan of old-school rap and was vibing to the new Nas record “King’s Disease 2” while writing about some changes to credit card benefits. That’s when a rap song hit me so hard that I had to stop and listen to it again. You tell me if this means anything to you.
You stuck in illusions
Attached to something that ain’t even that
South Beach, Nassau, Amalfi, Maldives, same beach
Unless you are after somethin’ most men just can’t see
For reference, Nas has been influential in the rap scene since the early 90s and is widely regarded as one of the best lyricists. He turned his music revenue into a financial empire by investing in several startup companies. He was reportedly paid $40 million when Amazon purchased Ring. He was also an early investor in Dropbox, Casper, Lyft, Robinhood and Coinbase. Needless to say, he’s doing well for himself, and has the type of money where he can travel wherever he wants.
After going around the world and visiting the most famous beaches where the who’s who gathers, his observation is that they’re all the “same beach.” No matter if you’re in Miami, Bahamas, Italy, or go all the way to the Maldives. The sand is the same and so are the people who go to these places.
Listening to someone who’s traveled to all of these places and realizes that all he was doing was checking things off of a list, made me rethink my bucket list. Am I filling it with places that I’ve seen other people visit to accomplish the task, or am I looking for places I want to visit?
This is hitting me hard as I’m looking for places to visit in 2023. It’s a big year for me and one where Sharon will let me pick wherever I want to visit. While I read many posts about people visiting the Maldives in an over-water villa, that’s not what I want.
For my last big trip, I chose to visit Yosemite, spend some time in wine country (with a side trip to French Laundry), and a short stop in San Francisco. Was it the most glamorous trip? Not at all. But it did make me happy.
The last two years have forced me to reevaluate my travel goals. While going all around the world is incredible, you don’t have to travel where the influencers tell you to go to have fun. I hadn’t read much about Iceland before 2021 and it was the most incredible place to visit. On past visits to Hawaii, we couldn’t find many posts about Volcano Village but we loved staying in the less touristy area of Hawaii and trying every restaurant in town.
I’m trying to say not to let others decide what you want to do. Pick where you want to go and find a way to get there. You might not be able to stay at a five-star resort or fly in first-class, but if the trip makes you happy, you’re winning.
Don’t settle on going to the “same beach” as everyone else because that’s what they told you to do.
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