Did Travel make me privileged?

Picture credit: Flickr/shenamt

Compared to most of my unemployed – or struggling to keep that one job that keeps them floating –friends back home, I have to feel privileged.

This was the bottom line of a phone conversation I recently had with my parents. As more and more people struggle to make ends meet back home, I should be proud of my choice of living life king size. However, I should also recognize that I am one of the privileged.

A privilege, according to the dictionary, is “a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor”. Ok. I do not see anyone having granted me any special favor, besides my own self. I decided to leave home and travel, and then applied the same philosophy each time I found what I was doing somewhere getting pointless or in need of a change.
I strongly believe that my privilege is the fact I have had the guts to leave home.

That’s it, really. I am no super hero, and to do what I did you need no superpowers. When I compare my example to some of my friends who are still complaining about unemployment and sit on the couch for the best part of the day, I feel that my real privilege is having a positive attitude towards life. Because I just cannot sit still and wait for a job interview that will never come, losing my mind into the depths of satellite TV. What’s more, I believe that any given day is a privilege. We may equally spend said day getting to know the world, or fighting tooth and nail to reach our aspirations sitting in front of a computer screen.  Whatever we do, or wherever we do it, is not that important. The crucial aspect is instead to acknowledge that by taking the steering wheel of our lives, we really are privileged. Light years ahead of anyone else.