Megan from Conde Nast Traveler:
Everyone is talking about how much it sucks not being able to travel. I’ve heard people around me say they feel trapped, or they’ve been down about canceling vacations they were really excited for. (Me too!)
But for me, not being able to travel feels like something bigger than that. Travel is the thing I’m most passionate about. When I describe myself to people, the first thing I say is that I’m a traveler. I feel like I’ve been cut off from the thing I cared most about, from something that defines me. I’ve even struggled to answer the question, What do you like to do? recently, because normally I’d just say: travel. It’s also something I really good at. My friends know to come to me for travel advice, or even for help scoring a cheap last-minute flight. That’s my role. (I am not that desperate, yet!)On some level, that could be me. I often get asked for travel advice. I send a daily email when I am on the road. My travel is often the main topic of conversation with friends and even my relatives. Three of my books are about my travels.
Furthermore, from Megan: Travel for many people represents more than just a vacation, so not being able to move isn’t like losing one hobby, or one relationship—it’s like having an entire means of interpreting and relating to the world taken away from you. Amanda Villarosa, a travel photographer who has shot some of our Women Who Travel trips, described her experience in a way that really struck me: “Traveling is how I celebrate, it’s how I mourn, it’s how I fulfill my curiosities about the world,” she says. “It’s how I meet people. It’s also how I get to know people I’ve already met. And it’s how I get to know myself. Having to pause the one act that allows me to be my true self, and give up this therapy, was a challenge I hadn’t faced before.” (Travel is not about my true self, it is fun for me)
Ask yourself what consumed you and brought you joy before travel. When you’ve been on trips, what are the activities that most draw your interests? Now can be a time to explore those passions.
And when it all feels too much, just take it day by day. “The psychological experience of things stretching out into eternity is unbearable,” says Graham. “There is a lot of peace in just tackling it one step at a time.”Personally, I think they are over thinking this.
Yes, travel is restricted. So what? We are safe and well, doing our best to survive. I am not crying or complaining, though I have felt like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. I know many people who either got Covid, or are struggling financially.
Let’s focus on the people who need help, and not our inability to travel. And let’s keep our country together!
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