Is travel like writing your own script for life?

Girl posing with a movie clapperboard

Girl posing with a movie clapperboard. Photo: HerMorningElegance / Flickr

Travel is taking an active stance.  Society funnels people from school to career to family.  However, when you travel, you’re making a conscious decision to stop following the script that you’re given.  Instead, you start to write your own script for life.

On the personal finance blog “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” (sounds scammy, I know) there was a great post on this topic: The invisible scripts that guide our lives.  After reading that, I couldn’t help but think about the “script” that society says about going abroad:

  • It’s expensive. Only rich people do that.
  • It’s weird. Only hippies and backpackers do that.
  • It’s dangerous.  You might get kidnapped and/or killed.
  • It’s being lazy.  (Personally, I think avoiding making hard decisions is lazier.)
  • It’s harmful to your career. Check out this post by Alex Maccaw.  He traveled around the world for a year, and got a better job than the one he had before his trip.

Got any more you can add to that list? What’s the script you wrote for yourself?  Please share your thoughts in the comments.

P.S. On a complete tangent, there was a terrific comment on there by woman who arranged a low-cost, high-fun wedding.

 

Posted by | Comments (3)  | April 30, 2012
Category: Lifestyle Design, Notes from the collective travel mind


3 Responses to “Is travel like writing your own script for life?”

  1. DEK Says:

    Don: You are more likely to bring bedbugs home from New York City. My experience with foreign vermin is that they are happy where they are and don’t want to travel. But then, your experience may vary.

    The point of this piece is correct: you can write your own story when you travel. Some people will make their story fiction, but if you do it well it can be life-changingly true.

    And you may find that, having written your own life script when you went traveling, that you can continue to write it when you get back.