wanderlust
there’s a national geographic “traveler” magazine sitting next to me, and i hate it.
i actually started this post a long time ago when i learned that a good chunk of my friends are going to hawaii for NYE, and the magazine reminded me of it. the NYE news sparked a great deal of jealousy for me, as i find myself left out of such travels all the time. my friends go all around the world; just this year alone i have friends who have gone to thailand, korea, india, bhutan, turkey, puerto rico, morocco, italy, jordan…those are just the ones i can think of off the top of my head. i’m sure many more exotic places were travelled to this year by my friends, family, and coworkers while i visited 3 other states: minnesota, michigan and nevada. there are only three posts in the “travel” section of my blog for this year, and one of them is about somewhere we went in 2005.
when i was younger no one ever went anywhere exotic, as we were all relatively poor. when i got to college, i got my first taste of travel-jealousy when much richer friends went to mexico instead of florida for spring break, and then when the summer after my freshman year hit and tons of my friends took off for europe, either for phish tour or to go on “holiday with the fam”, while i stayed behind and got a job (or two), i started building up some serious resentment.
i have been working every summer, every year since i was 14. you know how every so often you get that little newsletter from the Social Security Administration which shows what your taxable income has been every year since you startd paying taxes? i hate that newsletter. i hate that it tells me that i gave up whole summers in 1990-1998 for sometimes as little as two grand (40 hours a week @ 4.25 an hour for 3 months only = $2040) BEFORE TAXES. i spent every summer in high school working, and most weekends, and worked 2 jobs most of the time i was in college. i’ve never been to europe. i’ve never been to mexico except that 6 hours when we got off the cruise boat last year. outside of that and canada, the only countries i’ve visited have been nepal and thailand, where we spent 3 short weeks in 2003. that was the last time i took a vacation not to burning man or michigan that lasted more than 4 days.
sure, i traveled all over northern california this summer, and of course i also know a large number of people who haven’t even been lucky enough to travel even that much, who have never been outside of their home state. but i’m talking relative to myself, to where i want to go, to where my friends and coworkers travel, i’ve been relatively homebound for all of my adult life due to not having enough time or money. and i’m really, really sick of it.
i’m sick of dreaming of wandering in other cultures, other lands, discovering that the world i know is so much more rich, so much more full of life than it seems when you stay in one place. i’m sick of seeing my friends photos all over flickr from the tops of mountains and under waterfalls and inside bustling colorful markets. if there is anything that i am jealous of other people about, it’s travel, and it’s something that jay and i have fought about in the past when i’ve tried to justify putting a few grand on the Visa for some trip that we’re missing out on. he’s been really staunch about not spending a lot on travel until our debts are paid off, and his almost are.
i still have a good chunk of debt to pay off, which i can *maybe* do in 2007 if i seriously stick to a budget, and traveling is no way to stick to a budget or pay off debt. there is a multicultural event being planned by some of my friends for early 2008 in india, and i’m setting my sites on that being the beginning of my extended foray into the foreign. can i stand a whole other year of staying in the states while my friends travel the globe? it’s going to be hard, and having many of my good friends heading off to hawaii in a couple of weeks is making it difficult to control that jealousy that i’ve been holding onto for so long. i can’t realistically leave for any extended period of time with the debt i have right now (and nor do i want to, really, and accrue more debt), so i’m going to have to tough it out. i might even skip burning man next year so that i can save money to travel in 2008.
the wanderlust just hits me so hard sometimes, though, when i’m sick of american culture and sick of going to work at the same place at the same time everyday and sick of wanting to know what life is like elsewhere here on this small planet that i just want to say screw it and book a ticket to budapest and not look back.
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I hear you and am in the same boat. My brother and his family are heading out for another trip overseas and to Africa again. The amount of travelling he does in a month is more than I do in a year, most of it for work but still, he’s been to China, Japan, Europe and more dozens of times.
And for NYE this year, we’re going to family hostel out on the coast in Monterey County somewhere, I think.
I did spend a year abroad but that was a long time ago and I get the itch to move very strongly every so often. But its darned near impossible with a full family.
erik, that’s exactly one of the reasons i’m in no hurry (or have no interest) in starting a family until i get some of this stuff, things i want to do that must be done while i’m young/healthy and fairly untangled in things like mortgages and children and careers, and it seems the longer i wait the less time in my life there is that i will still i have ability to do things like travel to asia for several months, and i get serious ants in the pants. it’s difficult enough for jay and i to try to plan and coordinate trips for the 2 of us; i can’t imagine trying to with a spouse and 2 kids and a dog, unless of course you’re very rich, which i don’t expect i will ever be.
Amy
Ireland is still on the burner for us, maybe we will be able to reschedule it when you and your Mom are available. And since we are traveling
with Bryan, all roads go through Amsterdam…..
Love
Cynthia
tell me about it. i feel like i’ve been trying to pay off debt and save to travel in south america FOREVER and i’m still not all that close.
in the meantime it seems like practically 75% of everyone i know has gone traipsing off to south america and back like 3 times! i have no idea how people have CLOSE to that much money (and free time).
but i still have the dream and know it will happen eventually. and i don’t get too depressed because in the meantime, i love my daily life and i do sooooo many cool things all the time that people who live in most other countries never get to come close to doing, and i know you do too. i know you have experienced this firsthand too but it affected me to see that most people in developing countries especially will never even once get to travel outside their home country, sometimes even their home village, even if they had the money (which they NEVER will) they still couldn’t get the visas.
you still have many years ahead of you to see the world, ms. leblanc!
then again, reading what you wrote in the comments section, if you really plan to have a family then your days for travel and adventure ARE numbered, lol. but if you don’t ever have kids, just think of all the free time you still have coming!