There’s a wider world out there than my own back yard, and I don’t just want to see it on the web. I get a little bit of a buzz showing a foreigner around my own familiar joints; I get a sense of how unique they are compared to the rest of the world that is hinted at by any foreignness. But I much rather experience that world and foreignness first-hand, and find my own place on a world stage that seems less strange with first-hand experience.
Travel gets me away from stress; something of a confusing notion, really. A lot of people find travelling stressful, especially if it’s a business trip. I know what they mean, but I still intuitively feel that travel gets me away from stress. It gets me away from stultification, the monotony of routine, the limited horizon of the local. Travel expends energy, and if it’s work, then there’s also satisfaction in reaching a destination. Nothing is worse than the stress of monotony: effort for no purpose; effort that actually seems to keep things the same.
I like being driven, whether it’s a plane or a bus or something else. Being chauffeured. I’m simultaneously important, but also just a guest. It’s the same experience with a guide, sometimes having to follow their exact footsteps. Different world, or different part of the same world I haven’t yet seen. It’s been there and been travelled by others, but it’s new to me. The other person’s perspective is what I capture. Its foreign made familiar by assuming someone else’s place.
Travelling means going to some other place. Definitions like this capture meaning, but not the point. The change and difference. Is it a different experience for everyone? Of course, that’s the whole point. We’re going from the things that make us different to the difference of somewhere else. The continual change of it all. If we embrace enough change do we become more alike? Not really, we just have a bigger perspective. That feeling of seeing things for the first time and trying to put all the sights, sounds and sensations together-give me that all the time and you have the point of travelling.