You don’t experience profound moments every day, week, or year. It’s the rare occasion when you get asked something that knocks you off of your feet. These questions often come out of the blue when you least expect them from the most unlikely of sources.
While you feel the gravity of the question, you might not know the answer at the moment. You might think you know, but it could take something shocking, such as a global pandemic, to force you to reexamine your position.
Please excuse the profundity of this story compared to our other blog posts. I’m feeling introspective, and I appreciate you for indulging me.
We were attending a family gathering, and while we were standing in the kitchen, we caught up on each other’s lives. However, only a few of my relatives are aware that Sharon and I travel extensively or that we have a website dedicated to our travels. We listed the places we had visited in the past year or two, as well as the destinations we planned to visit in the future..
One of our relatives looked right at us and asked, “Do you travel so much to see these places, or are you traveling to get away from something?”
Woah!
You might think that asking such a personal question is inappropriate, but since it was asked by a family member, I didn’t take offense. Without hesitation, I responded that we enjoy traveling. We don’t see it as a means of escaping anything, but rather as something we share and love doing together. Creating a website about our travels felt like a natural next step.
Ever since that day, the question sat in the back of my mind. Why do we travel so much? Are we trying to run away from something, and if so, what?
It wasn’t until the pandemic that I realized I don’t need travel to be happy and neither does Sharon.
Cooking breakfast in the morning and watching movies we’ve been putting off forever at night was enough. Missing traveling is different from being miserable because we’re not able to travel. Now that we’re traveling as much as we did before the pandemic, it’s not because we’re getting away from something.
We travel because we want to see other places, not because we need to escape from where we are. For that, we are very thankful.
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[…] THIS QUESTION ABOUT OUR TRAVELS ALMOST KNOCKED ME OFF MY FEET! […]
[…] travel junkies, I’m missing our former life (although, it’s worth asking ourselves why we travel, as noted by Nick at Frequent Miler). At the same time, I work in science – my company […]
There is one thing you could be getting away from… THE HEAT!!😁
My travel goals have changed during the pandemic.
I no longer want to travel to mediocre places. For example, I used to think that Lesotho might be interesting. However, if you have a head injury because of a car crash in Lesotho, you may be hosed for life. There is likely no good trauma system or neurosurgeon in Lesotho.
My interest in the world has dwindled to about 60 countries, not the 150 countries previously on that mental list. There are still some poor countries on that list such as Paraguay and Palau. I read an article where Palau has zero ophthalmologists. If you have a retinal detachment or major eye trauma or acute glaucoma attack in Palau, you are hosed.
Or THE COLD!
I was also asked why I like travelling. My answer was that every day I work at my desk, the beautiful landscape that we were in the middle of, when the question was asked, is there, and I’m not.
Also, I think that we live in a time when traveling is possible and relatively affordable, for quite a few. Even more so if you’re skilled in the art of earning and using points. I can tell you that it wasn’t always like that and that it may not last for much longer. Who knows what the trigger will be – wars, green tyrants, financial crises, viruses, CBDCs …
We should benefit while we can.