The excitement is finally kicking in. I have almost all of my gear sans a pair of ear plugs, locks, etc. Nothing that is crucial to the experience. I’m currently reading Vagabonding by Rolf Potts and it’s already starting to change my mind set.
Particularly this quote has stuck with me over the last few days:
[We spend] the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it.
- Henry David Thoreau
And it’s true. We work and work and work until retirement because culturally that’s what we do. We accumulate things; lots and lots of things that tie us like prisoners to a piece of land. What if instead we did like the Australians and took a 1-2 year vacation during our college youth. How would our perspective as a culture change? I didn't realize this, but to travel for approximately 8 months in China would be around $6-11K. Living on a beach in Thailand for 6 months is about 3-5 grand. That’s the cost of a new couch. So for a couch you can stay at the place above for 6 months. I mean that’s ridiculous. That’s our option, but instead we buy the new car, the house, and it goes on. I mean $20,000 which is the low low end for a new car could buy you 2 years in Central and South America and leave you with some change.
Now I’m not knocking the choice of consumerism, but if you are like me I didn’t even realize the option of trekking the world was there. I can’t imagine living and not having seen the world. It is too great to limit ones self to a couple weeks a lifetime. I did it for so long and now I’m not sure that I can do it anymore.
No comments:
Post a Comment