It was a lovely winter morning. I had just poured myself a big mug of coffee at work, sat down at my desk planning my day ahead and like a daily routine logged into my Facebook account to get a quick look at my newsfeed. There were several notifications like always but something felt odd that day. There were 11 people who had tagged me on a post that was trending that week.
“Don’t Date a Girl Who Travels” by The Huffington Post.
Sounded interesting, so I clicked on the link to read it at length and thought it was an interesting perspective, however, I did feel it was quite an extreme view which I didn’t completely resonate with.
Being someone who travels extensively, a few (who have known me closely) tagged me along with some others saying “Thought you may find this interesting.” While there were some (who I haven’t met since maybe in school or college or have superficially known me at work) mailed me the article saying “The author of this article sounds like you.” When I asked “Why?”, one of them quipped, “Going by your Facebook updates, you come across like this ‘kind of a girl’.”
To be honest, I didn’t know how to react because I couldn’t figure if that was a compliment or just a snide remark.
That day, something shifted within me. And no it has nothing to do with what people think of me and my views on life. But what ‘assumptions’ people draw for those who travel purely on the premise of seeing their ‘social media updates’.
We all love sharing good moments with others – some like to party hard, some while pigging out yummy meals, some with family, many with friends and several while they are traveling.
To assume that avid travellers – run away from responsibilities; are aimless, unaccommodating, selfish; so fearlessly independent that they don’t value relationships in their life; epitomise instability & uncertainty is stretching the mind a bit too far and beyond the realities of life.
To most, travel is just a part of their life that enriches and energizes them to be more productive at work; strangers teach you the art of bonding to help you value your relationships back home; landslides/ missing trains tell you that there is always a Plan D when the earlier plans didn’t work; buy cheap tickets to save more; a waitlisted train ticket teaches you to share and care when a co-passenger gives you a place to spend the next 14 hours with her on her berth; and most importantly, it helps you enjoy the journey in a destination-obsessed world.
Judge less, travel more 🙂
Forrest Gump’s momma always said, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
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