When travel is not your cup of tea
Travel is a great blessing, or a privilege (for those who stay wary of the former term); this is a personal feeling, something close to my heart and being, and something that I share with millions across the globe.
I, and possibly you, have an innate drive, an urge, an itch, perhaps even a calling, to travel. To go beyond the borders of what we call home, to cast ourselves out in the unknown, and to come back richer in experiences and stories. But what if you don’t have that urge? What about those of us who don’t feel that pressing need to travel?
When you hear people around you — family members, friends, co-workers, even passersby — speak of their travels, or you see posts on social media liberally tagged with #wanderlust, #takemeback and #travelgoals, what thoughts cross your mind?
Do memories of past travels swim up from your hippocampus to your visual chambers, and now claim maximum space in your brain? Do these memories cajole you to revisit photographs from those travels, even coax you to post the best of the lot on social media for the world to share in your reliving? Do they encourage you to start planning your next adventure, as that familiar itch to travel courses through your veins?
Or, do you feel the exact opposite — a dull ache at not wanting to travel and being belittled (in jest or otherwise) for your choice to simply stay? Do you feel pressured to keep up with your friends and peers who somehow not only manage to travel frequently but actually enjoy being away from home so often and for so long?
You may read those hashtags, see those pictures, watch those videos, and feel like your choice to stay somehow makes your life less interesting or less fulfilling than those of others. While the world glorifies those who choose to be on the move
What about those of us who do not travel? Not only because we can’t, but also because we don’t want to? Are our lives somehow less fulfilled because we choose to not travel?
If you relate to these sentiments, I’ve got a pretty unpopular opinion for you.
You’re not alone, and it’s alright.
It’s okay to not travel. It’s okay to not want to travel. It’s okay if travel does not excite you. It’s okay that to you, travel is not a necessity, not a first-choice, not a priority. It is absolutely and unquestionably normal to just be where you are.
Staying the course, or settling is as natural as breathing. It’s possibly the oldest tool in our belt that ensures our survival; it’s what encourages us to build and sustain something for ourselves and for the future — a home, a safe zone, a community. It’s the ones who’ve chosen to settle who create warm and welcoming spaces for the ones who choose to travel; a sort of Yin Yang, if you will. If some of us derive true contentment from staying put, why, then, are we pressured to pack our bags and leave?
How else can we escape the dreaded clutches of monotony, or break free from the rut?
To believe that travel is the only solution to tackling boredom, or that movement is the only way to escape the mundane is akin to believing that there is only one route to a destination.
There are endless ways to add sparkle to our lives, and travel is just one of them. Lose yourself in the pages of a good book. Pamper your pet. Immerse yourself in a play. Grow a garden. Learn a new language. Swim endless laps, and then some. Take an early morning walk in the park. Drink in the colours of dusk. Move, on your own terms. There is no dearth of ways to keep monotony at bay.
Some are born to spread their wings, and others to spread their roots.
Besides, vacationing while being constantly glued to the phone, or travelling across the world just to check in to a five-star hotel room isn’t exactly helping anyone spice up their routine.😏
How will we grow, if we do not travel?
Now is as good a time as any for some much-needed honesty. Travel is often viewed through rose-coloured glasses as the single most effective path to learning, introspection, and enlightenment. The real cause for alarm lies in how many of us are buying into this ideal — that travel is the only way to better ourselves.
Learning and growing take place in different forms and at different paces for different people. What works for me may not work for you. While travel may be the best way for me to learn about diversity and to be more embracing of other cultures and their ways of doing things, others may derive such value by watching a documentary, reading, visiting a museum, conversing with diverse yet like-minded people, or even attending events.
Here’s the truth that lies behind the veil — no matter how much of the world we may have traversed, we would have only spent time and money, and gained nothing, if we’ve journeyed with a blind eye and a closed mind. We will never be able to appreciate the oasis if we continue to escape the searing heat by encasing ourselves in the cooling, comfortable bubble of our privilege. Travel, in no way, radically changes people unless people want to change.
Shouldn’t everyone experience the joy that only travel can bring?
Something that plagues us today is that travel is peddled as a mere ware. It is transacted as a must-have commodity, a necessity even — as a thing not only to be attained or possessed but also to be flaunted. People flock to Instagram hot-spots just to click a picture because ‘everyone is doing it’. Primped selfies in airport lounges, pictures of perfectly foamed artisan cappuccinos from expensive cafes, ostentatious photo-shoots by bedecked tourists all hoping to get that one sunset click that will pass the many convoluted layers of social media approval — this is the norm.
What’s more disturbing is how this is affecting the mental health of the younger demographic — many of us subscribe to the idea that travel, particularly foreign travel is the new social currency; it buys popularity, and thereby acceptance. Those of us who don’t/can’t travel often find ourselves feeling ostracized. Moreover, mindless travel fuelled by unethical and unsustainable tourism practices has a lasting impact on our fragile planet.
Travel is not a necessity for everyone. For many of us, travel simply does not justify the investments in terms of energy, time, and money. The truth is, travel isn’t easy, especially when you have to do it all — researching the best (and cheapest) times to travel, booking flights and hotels, getting your hands on the right currency, making lists over lists, crafting itineraries that cover every experience, fitting a week or two’s worth of your life into a small rectangle of a suitcase, making sure you get enough vacation days without it impacting your work, and the financial strain it can often cause — for many, it’s overwhelming to just think about these unspoken aspects of travel.
Some of us would rather direct that investment elsewhere — into activities that bring us more joy and contentment than travel. Happiness can be found in travel, yes, but it can also be found in building a home, nurturing a family, spending time with old friends, and reconnecting with our roots.
It’s fine to encourage (within limits) people to travel. I do it too. What isn’t fine is shaming those who choose to stay rooted, those who find peace in staying put, those who seek comfort in the familiar, and those who derive joy in being closer to home. What is worse, is when we do it to ourselves and invalidate our personal choice.
My two cents? Throw off the bowlines, if that’s what helps you become a better, more giving person. Or, stay your course, if that is what helps you blossom.
Travel may not be your cup of tea, so grab a mug of coffee instead.
Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.
Originally published on my travel blog Commonerscauseway.com
