Why Travelling When You're Young Ruins Your Life

Today's society works on a cycle: You're born, you go through 12+ years of education, you go to University & rack up a hefty student debt OR you start work and start paying tax, you work most of your life, you move out, you pay rent, you pay bills, you buy a car, you pay petrol, you pay insurance, you maybe meet someone, you might get married, buy a house, pay a mortgage, have kids, pay for their food, their clothes, their school fees and then they go through the same cycle... and then maybe- JUST MAYBE- you might get a bit of retirement money when you can FINALLY do some travelling, but by then you're much too old to do any of the things you once dreamed of doing.

You will probably choose a job based on the money you earn so that you can actually afford a life that society expects you to have. Which means that you probably won't actually enjoy your job. Society encourages us to choose the job with the best financial stability rather than valuing what would make us happy- because apparently, happiness doesn't pay the bills. 

When you're young you are so easily influenced that you go along with these expectations and this cycle because you're taught it and it's what you know. It's all you know. But it's quite depressing, and sometimes there are some of us who question this cycle and challenge it. 

You may decide to sell your car, end your lease early and spend your hard earned cash on a one way ticket to anyway but here...

But be careful, because once you get a tiny taste of travelling or even worse, catch the dreadful, terribly horrible travel bug- you are doomed. Because once you start you will never want to stop.

You'll get used to being free and going where you want and eating what you want and having no strict routine or responsibilities. You'll fall in love with cities and people and food and cultures. You'll get used to seeing new places regularly and spending your days exploring forests and islands and castles and shops and villages and cities and everything in between. 

But someday you will run out of money. That dreadful stuff that they made you work your ass off for. That dreadful stuff you had to waste on bills and student loans and petrol. That dreadful stuff that for some reason makes the world goes round. Unfortunately to travel, you need money, and to get money, you need to work.

So whilst travelling opens up your eyes, your heart and your soul, whilst it makes you feel like a bird thats free with the world beneath its wings, whilst it makes you appreciate the amazing world you live in and allows you to see more in a few months than the routine cycle allows you to see in your whole life, whilst it makes you feel the happiest you've ever felt, whilst it makes you feel inspired and  light enough to float and whilst it makes you feel whole- you eventually have to stop.

Because of that money thing, you'll eventually have to stop. You'll eventually have to return to the cycle and most of us get sucked back into it, ignoring the life changing path we could have taken.

So my advice is to fight! Fight and work hard to find something you love that you can turn into a career. Make money by doing something you're passionate about and can thus fund your travelling soul for as long as you wish. Don't get stuck in that cycle- break out and use the short time you are given in life, to see as much as you can, do as many things as you want and to be as happy as possible.