Why do we travel?

I have many friends around the world and despite the distance we manage to keep in touch.
I am a sociable and talkative person, proactive and positive and in recent years, more than before, my choices have led some of my friends to rethink their lives and share their thoughts with me. With Skype everything is made possible, no time zone barriers.

Many are no longer happy with what they have, little satisfaction in their workplace, a life that does not reflect their own ideal, and that they would like to change. Unfortunately they feel trapped and blocked from taking the final step and fear takes over, so as to leave the idea to a future indefinite date.

It is hard to be able to give advice when it is not your own life, I know. I can only speak from my own experience, of what I did and how I chose to live, it does not mean that it is the right choice nor universally valid for everyone.

The only belief I have, however, is that there is a place in the world for everybody, as long as you are ready to find it, even if it will take you away from home, and so long as you are really willing to do everything.

To change your own life is not simple or easy. I can’t stop saying this over and over again. You may run into ups and downs, failures and risings, great jobs and others that won’t be anything special. As a fact, everything you do is experience, for better or for worse and this is what we must treasure.

Just the other day while talking with a dear friend we discussed this issue. Leave everything and try for a new life or settle for what you have and pretend that all is well? Travel for a bit and then come back? Why traveling can be a decisive solution for a radical change in your own life?
In this post I don’t want to talk about me, if you’ve been following me for a while you know my story and I do realize to be an exceptional case, but this time I want to talk to those who want to change everything and who want to take up a few months to ponder, think hard and find a solution away from home.

Why travelling to give yourself an answer?

Escape from reality or radical change?

Some people told me that I travel in order to run away from my duties, a flight from reality living in a world that is fictional and that I should focus instead on the real duties that a woman my age should overtake at this stage of life: a home, steady job, maybe a family.

I wondered myself whether in all this I were really running away from something. But the truth is that the only escape is from a life that no longer satisfies me. There is no harm in going away and seek alternative and optimal solutions. We do not have to be the modern Joan of Arc. More than escape I would say it is a change.

To think away from home means thinking with a free mind

Escape from reality? And if so, what’s wrong with it? When is it that we really feel free to make decisions, even crazy ones, but in which we strongly believe, and then we decide to dedicate heart and soul to them?

When our mind is free. Free of commitments be it the office, bills to pay and mortgages. Travelling allow you to be detached from the daily thoughts that generally beset us, and thus review and rethink our life from another point of view and in a state of utter lucidity.

Experiencing the world means finding alternative chances

I am Italian and I believe that Italians have a problem that I think is common to the most of us: we are afraid to leave what we have because we are scared of not finding a viable alternative. Besides, if we are told not to be too "choosy", it looks like our destiny should be foretold and we must resign to a future of little satisfaction settling with what comes to us when reality is not this.

Traveling you may find alternative ways to live and work and maybe find the right place for you. It may happen that you find these opportunities on the other side of the world or just across the border, but only traveling you can really understand what you can and what you can’t do. Surfing the net won’t work... and you are likely to run into disappointment or failure.

Travel means taking the time to change things

It's hard to return from holidays, right? The day before returning to the office a veil of sadness covers us because we would have rather continued living what had been a different life if only for a few weeks. Traveling for a few months regenerates even more and the return is less depressing than what you can imagine.

After a long journey it is nice to come home and get back on track. Traveling means disconnecting from your everyday life of routine but it does not mean you stop thinking, to free your mind from commitments means having more space to devote to ideas and projects, see alternatives that you wouldn’t see before, rethink your own life and give yourself a different role.

We are the only ones who can change things, but it's difficult when you work 8 hours a day, spend two hours driving in the middle of traffic when going and returning from the office, while at the same time thinking about what to cook. Time, especially free time, helps to understand and if you will also to change things.

Travelling can therefore be a different way to turn the course of your life and perhaps find your own way, get new ideas and discover that we are different from the way we believed to be. If neither of these things happen and returning from the adventure the desk where you have to sit remains the same...no problem! Surely these months away have already given you a positive charge and you shall face everything in a different manner and then if the travel bug has taken hold of you ... .great, you have already changed, but you don’t know yet!