- Arriving to your terminal/gate too early only to wait for a flight that is delayed.
- Missing your train to the airport by ten seconds only to wait for a flight that is early.
- Schlepping through terminals only to find that your flight's gate changed for one on the other side of the airport.
- Schlepping your bags that feel like they have bricks in them only to find that you didn't pack enough upon arrival.
- Not having enough battery power in your electronics only to find that the only outlet within a ten kilometer radius of the gate is being occupied by a schlumpy man playing Candy Crush on his phone.
- The dry excuse for a sandwich that passes for an in-flight meal.
- Sitting between business travelers with an inflated sense of self-importance who insist on purchasing discount tickets but expect business-class service and don't shut off their phones at any point during the flight.
- The person who insists on testing out exactly how far back the seat in front of you will recline, forcing it unnaturally further.
- The person who insists on testing out exactly how far forward your seat will contract, forcing it unnaturally further.
- Getting your passport stamped after standing in line for an hour, despite the image you project at home to your less well-travelled cohort.
Ten Unglamorous Things About Traveling
Video: Barcelona Take 2
I had a lot of fun putting this vlog together. I've also been taking more video when I do vlogs, so there's more fun to be shared. Go check it out:
The Travel Bug
A lot is written about traveling, so much so that it has its own genre. I have been loth to define exactly which genre of writing I'm pegging myself into on this blog, with the idea that tendencies can emerge that I can hone in on gradually. If I put myself into a box, my natural instinct is to figure out any way possible to get out of and destroy it. Yet I do my fair share of travel writing on this blog, lifestyle-ish, travel-related, personal to a certain point, all as it may be, and today I wanted to share with you some of the things that motivate that nomadic itch that I get that seems to be a fundamental part of me.
I read a flippant comment on social media the other day about how people who feel the need to travel all the time and get away are insecure in themselves and maybe if they just calmed down and did something about their problems they would feel fine staying put. That graphic, in nicely-done typography, set in a relatively well-stylized overlay as is common these days, really stuck with me, not the least of which being because it came from someone who spent the better part of a year living abroad, traveling frequently, and professedly enjoys the experience herself. While I don't disagree that traveling to escape from problems is a bad thing, it was such a strong message of needing to stay put and that it was shameful to leave your rightful (in this case, original or current) place. The negativity was biting and the message was less of a call not to pretend like every indebted Eat, Pray, Love excursion is going to solve all of your inner problems and more of a call to make people feel bad about themselves. I don't support that.
My personal story is one of a persistent resilience in the face of any mental or otherwise personal problems that I come across, and that makes me a bit of an odd fellow. So the message of working on myself before seeking out other things is not entirely lost on me, but I can only appreciate it from a distance of knowing what the end result is like, and not of having had to spend lengthy amounts of time in the trenches. I am quite fortunate in this regard.
Yet traveling, for me, is a world entirely outside of my problems, it doesn't change my ups and downs, nor does it cause or affect them in pointed, specific ways. Traveling and moving to a new country has allowed me to simply experience that aspect of being human in different places and allowed me to gain the perspective of other cultural responses to the same nagging questions, the same doubts, the same jubilation, the same loneliness of establishing yourself in new surroundings. Traveling, fundamentally, is just the act of existing in an unfamiliar, or even a familiar but different, place in the world from where you are most comfortable. Everywhere else, whether it be one city or multiple places, is home. Making the decision to travel, whether by necessity, for work, spontaneously, frequently, or infrequently, is a decision to go outside of your personal comfort and accept that you will be thrust into new patterns of thinking, that you will have to deal with all of the frustrating things that accompany the moments that make us marvel and go in the first place. Not everyone is out to have an Eat, Pray, Love experience, but those who do need not, by any means, be shamed for it—much less from others who have exerted their own right and ability to do precisely that. Not all those who get away each weekend to discover somewhere new are doing so because they have problems to confront, and not all those who stay in a static world of a 100 kilometer radius their whole lives have successfully managed to become paragons of mental health.
The travel bug strikes a lot of people. Most people, I would offer, probably have experienced it to some degree. Others, like me, seem to have been born with it. My motivation stems from a curiosity about all things, new or not, and the desire to understand them better. My motivation stems from wanting to see aspects of the human world that are not available in my American, anglo-centric place of origin. My motivation stems from the pursuit of sensory input, for the pure creative aspect of it, be it aesthetic, gastronomic, or otherwise. What is yours?
I read a flippant comment on social media the other day about how people who feel the need to travel all the time and get away are insecure in themselves and maybe if they just calmed down and did something about their problems they would feel fine staying put. That graphic, in nicely-done typography, set in a relatively well-stylized overlay as is common these days, really stuck with me, not the least of which being because it came from someone who spent the better part of a year living abroad, traveling frequently, and professedly enjoys the experience herself. While I don't disagree that traveling to escape from problems is a bad thing, it was such a strong message of needing to stay put and that it was shameful to leave your rightful (in this case, original or current) place. The negativity was biting and the message was less of a call not to pretend like every indebted Eat, Pray, Love excursion is going to solve all of your inner problems and more of a call to make people feel bad about themselves. I don't support that.
My personal story is one of a persistent resilience in the face of any mental or otherwise personal problems that I come across, and that makes me a bit of an odd fellow. So the message of working on myself before seeking out other things is not entirely lost on me, but I can only appreciate it from a distance of knowing what the end result is like, and not of having had to spend lengthy amounts of time in the trenches. I am quite fortunate in this regard.
Yet traveling, for me, is a world entirely outside of my problems, it doesn't change my ups and downs, nor does it cause or affect them in pointed, specific ways. Traveling and moving to a new country has allowed me to simply experience that aspect of being human in different places and allowed me to gain the perspective of other cultural responses to the same nagging questions, the same doubts, the same jubilation, the same loneliness of establishing yourself in new surroundings. Traveling, fundamentally, is just the act of existing in an unfamiliar, or even a familiar but different, place in the world from where you are most comfortable. Everywhere else, whether it be one city or multiple places, is home. Making the decision to travel, whether by necessity, for work, spontaneously, frequently, or infrequently, is a decision to go outside of your personal comfort and accept that you will be thrust into new patterns of thinking, that you will have to deal with all of the frustrating things that accompany the moments that make us marvel and go in the first place. Not everyone is out to have an Eat, Pray, Love experience, but those who do need not, by any means, be shamed for it—much less from others who have exerted their own right and ability to do precisely that. Not all those who get away each weekend to discover somewhere new are doing so because they have problems to confront, and not all those who stay in a static world of a 100 kilometer radius their whole lives have successfully managed to become paragons of mental health.
The travel bug strikes a lot of people. Most people, I would offer, probably have experienced it to some degree. Others, like me, seem to have been born with it. My motivation stems from a curiosity about all things, new or not, and the desire to understand them better. My motivation stems from wanting to see aspects of the human world that are not available in my American, anglo-centric place of origin. My motivation stems from the pursuit of sensory input, for the pure creative aspect of it, be it aesthetic, gastronomic, or otherwise. What is yours?
Getting Away
I've been debating in which form to write this post for a while, since there seem to be an excess of ideas in my head and a lack of cohesion. My posting schedule has been more or less demolished in the last month due to my adventures and life happenings, but I'm here, working on regularizing it, fear ye not.
It's been a slow month creatively, other than running away, last-minute, to travel to London without really telling anyone, and that has been reflected in my reduced activity on Instagram, writing, video-making, and so on. It's not for want of ideas, but for inspiration on the follow-through in putting them out there, and for the first time in the evolution of this journey in self-promotion and working on my oeuvre of creative online work, I've hesitated about some of the content I've had in mind to produce. Two of the videos I've wanted to make have been shelved upon reviewing the footage because I felt that they lacked the liveliness and sense of self that I'm trying to project. I've also been evaluating how to better define that so that I can more effectively put myself out there. I haven't written as much, in English or Portuguese, for similar reasons. Ideas come to mind and then I write a paragraph or so and find it disingenuous. It's what we could call creative block.
On the other hand, however, going to London the way I did and making vlogs and being able to share a different, more dynamic side of myself has allowed me time to work on doing more than talking, which as a semi-biographical writer is always a fine balance. I've felt alive and stoked the flames of a wide source of inspiration for the direction I want to take this site and my social media in general. It helps, too, to have had time to check out other figures who have taken on similar projects, figures on Twitter or Instagram who have unique voices or interesting perspectives, people who are pushing themselves and getting followers to show for it. Shameless Maya has been a particular inspiration of late, she with her Be Shameless mantra and yearlong social media adventure that took her on a journey of professional development, personal growth, and even travel. Her catchphrase (and tagline of late) is itself a cliche, but one that hits the right note for me at the moment. I believe I have a strong enough voice to hold an audience and make something more of this if I get my self-promotion game on more vigorously.
So there will be some continual adjustments and tweaks over the next few months as I figure out how to tweet better, get more followers on Instagram, and see what happens with my videos. I have ideas for all of those things, and I want your feedback and support, my readers and habitual guests on this site. It is invaluable and keeps me going.
The point of this is to say that, yes, I am still here. Sometimes getting away is a way of retuning yourself, adjusting your priorities, and finding a way to make more of the meaning you're creating out of life. That's what we all strive for, wouldn't you say?
It's been a slow month creatively, other than running away, last-minute, to travel to London without really telling anyone, and that has been reflected in my reduced activity on Instagram, writing, video-making, and so on. It's not for want of ideas, but for inspiration on the follow-through in putting them out there, and for the first time in the evolution of this journey in self-promotion and working on my oeuvre of creative online work, I've hesitated about some of the content I've had in mind to produce. Two of the videos I've wanted to make have been shelved upon reviewing the footage because I felt that they lacked the liveliness and sense of self that I'm trying to project. I've also been evaluating how to better define that so that I can more effectively put myself out there. I haven't written as much, in English or Portuguese, for similar reasons. Ideas come to mind and then I write a paragraph or so and find it disingenuous. It's what we could call creative block.
On the other hand, however, going to London the way I did and making vlogs and being able to share a different, more dynamic side of myself has allowed me time to work on doing more than talking, which as a semi-biographical writer is always a fine balance. I've felt alive and stoked the flames of a wide source of inspiration for the direction I want to take this site and my social media in general. It helps, too, to have had time to check out other figures who have taken on similar projects, figures on Twitter or Instagram who have unique voices or interesting perspectives, people who are pushing themselves and getting followers to show for it. Shameless Maya has been a particular inspiration of late, she with her Be Shameless mantra and yearlong social media adventure that took her on a journey of professional development, personal growth, and even travel. Her catchphrase (and tagline of late) is itself a cliche, but one that hits the right note for me at the moment. I believe I have a strong enough voice to hold an audience and make something more of this if I get my self-promotion game on more vigorously.
So there will be some continual adjustments and tweaks over the next few months as I figure out how to tweet better, get more followers on Instagram, and see what happens with my videos. I have ideas for all of those things, and I want your feedback and support, my readers and habitual guests on this site. It is invaluable and keeps me going.
The point of this is to say that, yes, I am still here. Sometimes getting away is a way of retuning yourself, adjusting your priorities, and finding a way to make more of the meaning you're creating out of life. That's what we all strive for, wouldn't you say?
Video: London
Well, I went off traveling again and this time, it was a snap decision. Go check out all of my adventures, this time in London: