When talking with friends who are already working and do not yet have children, traveling — besides job hunting and getting married — is one of the most popular topics.
We should travel to some of the more exotic places while we are still young, people tell me. When knowing where I plan to go for my vacation, 95% of the time the response would be, “What? Again? Why don’t you go somewhere else?”
I have been to so very few places. But for the cities that I have been to, I have fallen in love with a couple of them. It is often enjoyable to travel to somewhere new and experience its lifestyle and culture.
However, I do not anticipate that I will be leaving my footprints around the world. Not yet. Just like how there are four Ps for marketing strategy, I believe there are three Ps for traveling: price, people, and place.
When I was still in school, traveling was not a luxury — it was a dream. With tuition, rent and other living expenses, I did not even think about traveling.
However, after I have started working, the game plan has changed. Now it is about utilizing a limited sum of money and a limited number of vacation days to visit people and/or places. We need to prioritize price, people and place.
As I close the browsers on these travel sites with enticing packages and pictures, I will be lying if I say that I do not hope to be visiting these cities. However, I do not feel that it is a great pity because to me, people almost always come first.
People before price. And price before place.
I have a strong faith in places, including Venice and Maldives and other areas that are sinking. They can wait, but people may not.
And there is the story of Immanuel Kant, an influential German philosopher. In his entire life, he has never left his hometown, Königsberg. Perhaps one does not need to travel often or travel far to have profound perspectives on various matters, I encourage myself.
What about getting some deals to travel to places that you prefer with people whom you want to spend time? That will be ideal, but I have already learned that life is never so perfect.
“Perhaps one does not need to travel often or travel far to have profound perspectives on various matters.”
Jessica, I believe this statement is true. One indeed does not need to travel to find a goldmine of insights (although it works for some people). I seem to always here these fairytales or read novels where the theme is that someone travels far and wide, but only so many miles does she realize the love or treasure is right at home. (but she did travel the miles although she didn’t find the treasure in the foreign places….good for those who find the treasure without taking those thousand miles). Adventurous travelling to unknown territory is good, in my perspectives, in the sense that you get away from the familiar and have more time to reflect who you are and your limits, and how to react fast to fickle circumstances (that is just one style of travelling). But there is the other kind of travelling, where you travel with family or good friends and go in masse to each location —it’s fun and rowdy and happy. That kind of travelling also produce some insights about each person who went on the trip with you (people tend to reveal themselves when they are on the road). Travelling, in the end, boils down to leaving the familiar and going into something perhaps just only slightly new. But that process also will reveal much about yourself as well as the people who go on the voyage with you. So I think travelling HELPS improve your life in those ways.
But it could also be used as a means of escaping from the daily life. Thus, I also have known several people who don’t travel and stay in place yet have grounded perspectives toward life.
Agreed. People tend to reveal a lot mroe about their true selves when they are traveling. Facing the unfamiliar, they need to respond immediately and show their genuine reactions. It’s hard for a person to pretend someone whom he or she is not for 24 hours a day.
It reminds me of a true story from my friend. One time, we talked about how he came to the decision of getting married. He said that one time, he travelled with his wife (then-girlfriend) on a long trip. They had to deal with a lot, so they argued a lot as well. However, at the end of the day, he realized that they could manage seeing and interacting with each other 24/7 and solve problems together. So he proposed after the trip.