Travel is Not About Being Comfortable
Travel is not about being comfortable. This lesson is best learned early and best learned well. We do not travel to experience what it is like to be home. Wouldn’t we just stay at home?
Traveling is about trying the weird fruit, walking the extra mile and going without wifi for a little bit in the name of broadening perspectives. We don’t travel to feel like we’re sitting at home. What’s the pointing of traveling 1,543 miles (the actual distance from my hometown in Mississippi to the location where I’m sitting now) if you’re just going to sit in the hotel desperately trying to connect to Instagram?
I’m not saying it’s easy to throw away all your comforts and live in a country you know nothing about. I don’t even recommend it. I’ve been searching high and low for a Diet Coke since landing in this country, and I still haven’t found one. That doesn’t mean I haven’t made do by compromising with a normal Coca-Cola and accepting I’ll just have to go without for the next six days.
My best advice is to do your best. If you’re a picky eater, try the fruit, but maybe not the termites. If you’re a Diet Coke drinker, you’ll live without it for 10 days. If you’re addicted to Facebook, accept you’ll have to limit your scrolling. If you don’t know Spanish in a Spanish-speaking country, take a deep breath and check out Duolingo for a minute.
Change is hard, but travel isn’t about being comfortable.
