There is a cohort of travelers,
whose members will say that
they are traveling to find themselves.
But what does that mean?
Does it mean that they are traveling to quiet the mind,
to help them decide what they might want to do next in life?
I don’t think that’s what it means,
though that is a good reason to travel.
Does finding themselves mean that
they want to experience other cultures
for the purpose of better understanding nature and mankind,
and to gain a greater appreciation for their own lives?
I don’t think that’s what it means either,
though that is also a good reason to travel.
I think what people mean when the say
they are traveling to find themselves
is that they want to know who they really are
without the influences of their friends and family,
and the place in which they grew up.
It’s like a re-boot of their lives.
Who am I, if I start with a blank slate?
If at home,
you lived to escape your life,
being lazy and sitting around with your friends most days
drinking beer and smoking weed,
and then you do those same things
when you travel to find yourself,
you will soon discover that you’ve known yourself all along.
You didn’t really need to travel to find yourself.
You really are a person with habits that don’t serve you well,
except as an escape from your life.
But the travel is already,
in and of itself,
an escape.
Why not experiment with alternative identities?
What would happen if you decided to
change your bad habits when you travel?
Maybe you would embrace the new you.
Maybe you can become someone you like better than you did before.