I've travelled around the world a little bit, it's kind of a hobby, albeit a little pricey. I never wanted a "normal, quiet life." For me, that's slavery. I want adventure and excitement. I remember reading the Odyssey in high school as well as some other Greek myths, and part of what captivated me was some of the places that they traveled. I knew that such realms must be accessible for one who had the constitution for it. Throw in some Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Lord of the Rings, and that's what I really wanted to be, some amalgamation of what I saw in those stories. A sort of philosopher-explorer. In an odd sort of way, I've kind of become this, but not yet nearly to the degree I had envisioned.
If I look at my travels objectively, for me they are a sort of double edged sword. On the one hand, travelling to a foreign land where nothing is really familiar and you don't really know the language forces you to be more conscious and you feel much more alive because you are so much more in the now. There is a certain wonder in everything because you don't know what you're going to see next. This is contrary to ordinary life where your time is gradually sapped away in the humdrum of the daily grind. On the other hand, it is a reality escape from a life I see as rather boring and pointless. It allows me to dissociate to a degree from the fact the Earth is a prison and I'm incarcerated. It always catches up to me before the end of the trip that I'm just visiting another wing of the prison, and therefore I can never be free, but it does give me some relief to pretend I can be be a philosopher-explorer temporarily.
The thing is, I have this deep-rooted, perhaps even soul craving to experience things that are different and beyond my realm of experience. If I only get 100 years per incarnation, of which only 40 or so are really usable (from my perspective in my 20s regarding how bodies age) I could literally spend thousands of lifetimes wandering the endless corridors of experience across the cosmos. I suppose I would eventually have to settle down and do some real work like most restless young men who eventually settle into middle age, but the amount that could be experienced in one galaxy alone must be staggering. The call to adventure is immense. But here I am with a little pinprick of a consciousness and can't hardly experience any of it. But then again, maybe this planet is one of my thousands of adventures, and it is going to get more interesting as time goes on.
Bringing this back down to Earth, it is as you've said, it depends on how you use the experience. Overall, I think travelling is one of the most interesting things you can do in life and the positives outweigh the negatives if you can look at the situation objectively. The unpredictability of the backpacking/going it alone route, while being somewhat distressing at the time, is how you find the coolest places and most interesting places.
If I look at my travels objectively, for me they are a sort of double edged sword. On the one hand, travelling to a foreign land where nothing is really familiar and you don't really know the language forces you to be more conscious and you feel much more alive because you are so much more in the now. There is a certain wonder in everything because you don't know what you're going to see next. This is contrary to ordinary life where your time is gradually sapped away in the humdrum of the daily grind. On the other hand, it is a reality escape from a life I see as rather boring and pointless. It allows me to dissociate to a degree from the fact the Earth is a prison and I'm incarcerated. It always catches up to me before the end of the trip that I'm just visiting another wing of the prison, and therefore I can never be free, but it does give me some relief to pretend I can be be a philosopher-explorer temporarily.
The thing is, I have this deep-rooted, perhaps even soul craving to experience things that are different and beyond my realm of experience. If I only get 100 years per incarnation, of which only 40 or so are really usable (from my perspective in my 20s regarding how bodies age) I could literally spend thousands of lifetimes wandering the endless corridors of experience across the cosmos. I suppose I would eventually have to settle down and do some real work like most restless young men who eventually settle into middle age, but the amount that could be experienced in one galaxy alone must be staggering. The call to adventure is immense. But here I am with a little pinprick of a consciousness and can't hardly experience any of it. But then again, maybe this planet is one of my thousands of adventures, and it is going to get more interesting as time goes on.
Bringing this back down to Earth, it is as you've said, it depends on how you use the experience. Overall, I think travelling is one of the most interesting things you can do in life and the positives outweigh the negatives if you can look at the situation objectively. The unpredictability of the backpacking/going it alone route, while being somewhat distressing at the time, is how you find the coolest places and most interesting places.
