Traveling to Escape


This year I have used so much resources for me to travel to various countries and cities. This is not something new because since 2015, I have promised myself to travel as much as possible to gain new insights about the world we live in. So I have made a list and plan which places to visit first and how I would eventually do it. Structured as it seems, the travel plans seems to have certain logical purpose for recreation and discovery; but recently, I have realized especially this year I have been traveling to escape. This is the focus of this blogpost.

Escape from changes

Unforeseeable changes and crises either make or break an individual. These challenges put undue and sometimes excessive strain to a person's physical and mental capacity, and influences one's emotions, thoughts and decisions. The more sudden a crises develops, the more stress a person is obliged to handle. Worse, some do not have the sufficient coping skills and active social network that supports a person to go through tough changes. On the other hand, traveling results to an opportunity to somehow temporarily escape from confronting these difficult situations.  Though false solution, travel provides a temporary reprieve for one to be subjected to situations one can not tolerate especially mentally and emotionally.

Escape from monotony

Life could be sometimes be very structured and predictable. For adult individuals, life would be summarized into three: personal, social and work aspects. Most often, in all these three aspects, everything seems to be repetitive. One knows how to react to certain situations brought about the ease of predictability of situation. This is where traveling allows one to have a recess or somehow pause amidst monotony and order. When one travels, one is presented with novel problems, situations and challenges. In the long run, an individual escapes from the box of repetitive, somehow boring daily routines.

Escaping from oneself

Traveling allows one to assume the role of a curious traveler. This is a person who seems to be overwhelmed by the new experiences confronting him or her. The focus therefore becomes the environment one is into, instead of oneself. Traveling allows one to be considered anonymous among the huge crowd of visitors. The spotlight never is shown to oneself, thereby aiding one to confront both strengths and weaknesses of oneself. Temporarily, one abdicates his or her role as either as a family member, work colleague or perhaps neighbor. In a way, one avoids the stress associated with these usual roles one takes upon oneself.

Honestly, I am getting tired, but feeling challenged when I get the chance to travel to a new place. I explore a city in a systematic but hectic manner. I like to feel the adrenalin rush of attempting to see as much as possible. I somehow the luxurious stress of trying to observe how people in a new place differ from me. That makes me realize how important it is for me to adapt to others and my environment. Ironically, the same process of adapting pushes me to escape from it through traveling. To how long will I continue to do this is something at present I have no answer yet.

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