Elizabeth Waddington
Travelling can be the best of times and the worst of times. It can bring wisdom and it can bring foolishness, you can believe it is the most wonderful thing you’ve ever done or end up incredulous that you made such a big mistake in leaving home in the first place. Whatever happens you will end up with memories that will last a lifetime. Here are twenty things that most if not all regular travellers have had at some point during their adventures:
1. S***, I’ve made a big mistake
We’ve all done it: looked at where we are and how we got there and just sat there, head in hands, regretting choices we have made and wishing we could go back and do it all over again. All the more frustratingly, it could be the thing we failed to do – looking back on what we have missed out on.
2. I should never have come
Yup. Some vacations are just so disastrous that we wish we had just stayed home and never come in the first place. Like when you are staying in a cockroach infested hotel in a dislikeable city having been robbed and are worried that you will get bed-lice.
3. If only…
There is no sugar-coating it. All of us have made mistakes at some point or another. Everyone occasionally sits down and thinks, if only… the key is making sure that you regret things you do for a while rather than what you don’t do for a lifetime.
4. What have I been doing with my life?
Travelling can make you re-assess how you live your life – it can make you rethink your whole existence and leave you with as many questions as it answers. Many will return from their travels with a different take that will lead them to change their whole course.
Also Read: Read This if You Are Scared to Travel Alone
5. I am so lost
But getting lost is not a bad thing. Getting lost is good for the mind and soul, so embrace the experience and stay calm – you will be made a better person by the experience.
6. Where do I go from here?
This is the constant question of the traveller – literally and figuratively, travellers are lead to question their direction all the time.
7. Oh, crap
That awful dawning realisation that you have done something incredibly stupid – that you have left your ticket at your last destination, or mislaid your passport, or something equally important.
8. Aaargh!
It comes to us all – the giving up moment. Everything has gone wrong and you are left trying to pick up the pieces. The key is knowing when to cut your losses and call it a day.
9. Never Again
If at first you don’t succeed? No, sometimes experiences are best never repeated. Travellers are constantly learning from their mistakes and will often find themselves thinking, or a place or an experience – never again. Oh well, at least you tried it once.
10. Wow!
On the other hand, most travellers must surely have experienced that sublime moment of utter bliss when everything just falls into place and you are happy, so happy, that all you can say is ‘Wow!’. Travelling often puts you in the way of beauty.
11. They have it so much worse than I do
When travelling you are often privy to a lot of social problems and poverty. Witnessing how hard life can be for the most unfortunate amongst us can make us appreciate what we have all the more.
12. They have it so much better than I do
On the other hand, we will also be exposed to people who will turn us green with envy. When we travel and meet a lot of people there will always be some who make us feel that they are luckier than we.
13. People are awful
Travelling can sometimes expose us to the worst in humanity. If we are the victims of crime, or simply witness what we are collectively doing to our planet, we can sometimes feel depressed by the state of humanity.
14. People are amazing
Travelling also exposes us to the very best of humanity and how wonderful people all around the world can be. Travelling can give us hope for the future of our planet and show us the enduring goodness inherent in most of mankind.
15. They are just so different
Travelling can expose us to people who are very different to ourselves in their culture or customs, language or lifestyle.
16. They are just like me
But at the same time, travelling can teach us that underneath all the superficial stuff, people are all inherently very much alike.
17. The world is a scary and horrible place
If we have bad experiences on our travels, it can often colour out whole perception of the world around us and everything can seem very bleak.
18. The world is filled with infinite wonder
But when things go well and we experience random acts of kindness from strangers, see a beautiful city or a natural wonder, things can seem so amazingly good that you feel your heart might burst from the joy of it.
19. I want to go home
Sometimes everyone just wants to go home. It is normal to feel, at some point or another, that pang of missing loved ones or familiar places. We can have an overload of the strange and unfamiliar and just want to see something within our comfort zone.
Also Read: 10 Lines to Convince Your Parents to Let You Travel the World
20. I never want to go home
It is also normal, however, to feel that you never want to go home again. No matter how much you love your everyday life, travel can be intoxicating. Most travellers have held both irreconcilable thoughts in their mind at the same time – this is the endless, shiftless restlessness of those who love to travel.
If you have never had any of these thoughts then you probably have to travel more! Travelling is intense, meaningful, irreverent and strange. Travelling is an addiction that is hard to beat, though it can be hard at times. But whatever experiences you have had, you know that they have changed you, forever, completely and for the better.
