There's no real exciting answer, because the only one I've come up with is, "because that's what everyone expects you to do, and is sensible."
Will I tell my grandkids that the reason I didn't just pack up my stuff and head off into the world with little more than a sense of adventure was because it didn't seem sensible?
That would quite possibly make me the lamest grandma ever.
I have these two friends. Both have decided to sidetrack the sensible and head off on very cool trips that neither will easily forget. One is traveling the country by train and stopping at just about every big city, just to experience it. The other packed his few belongings onto a motorcycle, and took off down the west coast and into Mexico. His can't get lost or be late, because he has no schedule or destination. He just knows that at some point, he'd like to get to Costa Rica.
When I first heard about these adventures, I was apprehensive. How could they leave the normal scheme of things? They had school, right? And jobs to find?
And lately I find myself thinking that even though I have done the four straight years of college, and have had the tedious summer jobs, I don't have any more of a guarantee that my life will end up more successful or happy.
If I don't have that, then why? Because it's what I'm supposed to do? Man, if I had used that logic 90 years ago, I would be married with 4 kids by now, trying to breathe in a corset. Luckily, a few girls back then had the guts to take the leap and experience something else.
With no guarantees, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain, right? So what if miss out on one job opportunity by using that time to run through thousands of pigeons in some piazza in Italy? If that means I get to breathe in the dusty, hot air of the Roman Colosseum? If I get to look up through the criss-crossed metal of the Eiffel Tower? Or get to hear my name echoed through the walls of the Grand Canyon?
To me, every place is one in the same. It's all Out There, and I'd like to see it all. The monotony of this life (although happy and safe) can become stifling, and although I know I'd come back to it eventually, it'd be nice to smile to myself and know that at one time, it had been broken.
1 comment:
I have really enjoyed my trip thus far. I am really liking the whole feeling of leaving one place for a completely different one after just 2 days.
I am of the opinion that Americans should do it more often, that we get stuck in the 9-5 too easily and we become wheel-spinning hamsters to The Man.
Random traveling isn't everything - I mean, life is life and doesn't mutate crazily just because you go to a different location. But the changing perspective makes everything a lot more interesting.
This comment is too long. In short: Do it (why not?).
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