I always hear people talking about how they wish they could travel more freely in their lives.
- I totally understand where they’re coming from – it’s awesome to take a break from life and go off on an adventure to see some sights – but I also don’t guess they’re entirely realistic about what traveling entails.
As someone who travels often for work, I can tell you that it’s not all that it’s chalked up to be. Most likely, you won’t be flying first class. You won’t be staying in some beachfront villa with a private beach. And it’s unlikely that your photo gallery is filled with insta-perfect destination photos unless you devote endless hours to curating the perfect picture. In my experience, traveling has been a jarring and unpleasant experience, for the most part. In the past two afternoons, for example, I’ve existed across many temperatures and air temperatures. I started in the boiling and humid sub-tropical south only 48 hours ago. The temperature was balmy and warm, and there was a stillness to the air. A day later, the temperature had dropped about 40 degrees in my current location. There was a lot of wind and cold moisture on the ground adding an extra chill to the air, and my friend and I were nervously changing the indoor air temperature degree by degree. Flash forward to today; we’ve arrived at our final destination and the outdoor high is -14 degrees. We’ve put on all our heavy winter clothes and tried every trick in the book to warm up on this trip, but nothing can compare to simply existing in a moderately warm environment and staying there.