Love, ah, the wonderful yet dreadful word everyone longs for throughout their lives…
From a young age, we read children’s stories about princes and princesses falling in love, we graduated to YA novels that fashion pale vampires and desperate teenage girls meant for each other, and eventually we come to want something much more simple and plain than sparkling undead people, but still satisfactory in the very same way the princes and princesses were to us when we were younger. But I’m here to admit my bias in saying this: why fall in love when you can travel instead?
I haven’t had great luck in romance, to put it candidly, so I willingly say I am bias to this opinion. Maybe it’s my history of dead end romance, but for the most part, I find myself more and more turned off by the idea of love these days. It just doesn’t seem worth the let downs, the stress, the heartbreak, or anything else in between. Love, or whatever it is supposed to be, has burned me far too many times, when travel has always been there to revive me, unconditionally supportive and arms open wide ready for me to explore a new place.
Part of me knows that’s why I’ve felt lost lately, caught up in these questions about romance and what I want. I’m questioning a lot of things and I find myself making more plans to travel than I do dreaming about raising a family. Travel has only helped me grow, and travel is always changing, so you never end up bored by what you are seeing on a day to day basis. People are inconsistent, sometimes unreliable, and love isn’t an eternal feeling but a commitment, and at that, one a lot of people have a hard time committing to. To me, it just seems like a simple answer.
Here’s why you should travel: travel because you’ll become a stronger person. You’ll find out things about yourself you didn’t know, wake up parts of yourself that no other human being can awaken, and you’ll learn things another human being cannot teach you. Travel because you’ll make memories you can share with someone someday, whether that is a lover, a friend, or family. The memories will mean more someday because they will be the stories you tell your kids, the pictures you share at Christmas, and they will be the things that make you smile no matter how bitter your experience with the country’s public transportation was last time you went. They will be the stories you share that your person will love hearing later on in your life.
Travel because love can wait. Most of us are young, far too young to keep putting ourselves out there just to be broken or let down time and time again. Focus on you and what you want to do. See things you’ve never seen, do things you have always wanted to do, and unapologetically put yourself first. Stop being so damn nice all the time and going out on a limb for people. It’s okay to put yourself first and not mind if someone else has to figure their stuff out without you. Not everyone will care the same way you do. And that’s okay, it just means you haven’t found the person yet. Or you haven’t found the rhythm of your life yet. It’s okay to be lost, just trust eventually things work themselves out.
Travel not because you’re escaping your life, but travel because you’re creating your life. In creating your life, you’ll realize all those little cracks that were made upon your heart happened for a reason, because someday you’ll meet someone who will show you what you’ve been looking for, someone who will make you smile instead of making you cry, and someone who will understand you like no one else on this planet. Wait for that, you’ll be thankful you waited and traveled instead.
