Lately my favourite thing to do in my free time has been to look up the flights from home, just to see how much it will cost me – Japan, Germany or Austria, it does not matter.
To those who donāt just travel, they identify with it;
I think itās safe to say that most of you are addicted to me. Maybe it was that week-long trip to Singapore, that month-long vacation in Paris or the annual family holiday to Denmark, the truth is, you have been bitten by the wanderlust bug.
But Iāve been feeling let down lately. A lot of you have been failing to live and travel at the moment. About five years ago, people used to be so happy to take in the beautiful sights with their own eyes and enjoy the company of those around them, instead of being preoccupied to gather footage of them hiking up to the top of a hill. What happened to the days when people filled their bags with souvenirs, instead of the Instagram-worthy snapshots?
Do you know that about forty per cent of people would rather lose their wallet than lose their phone if it came down to a choice? It really seems like all you want from me is bragging rights. Do you remember how people used to carry maps and accidentally take a wrong turn? They embraced the sense of adventure and knew that the best memories are the ones that arenāt documented. These are the anecdotes that people tell their family and friends that never make it to any social media account. Donāt get me wrong, I do love your pretty, aesthetic pictures and video diaries, but all I am asking you to do is embrace the authenticity, the stuff you didnāt plan, the wrong turns, the thrill of it all.
Look, you may already be that person, the one who takes stunning, spontaneous pictures and stops to watch the scenery, but I just want to remind you. Because thatās what makes travel rewarding.
You travel to open your eyes and learn more about the world than any newspaper or website will accommodate, to slow down time and fall in love with life again. Be a traveller, not a tourist. And while youāre taking in everything from the places you visit, remember that there are things you can give back too. You carry your values, beliefs and news to the places you go, and become walking video screens. In closed places like Pagan, you become their eyes and ears, and as close as they can get to Michael Jackson.
I hope you will find out a way to reclaim your sense of adventure.
Yours,
Travel
By Ishita Sharma
Feature image courtesy of Simon Migaj on Unsplash