What Long-Term Travel Has Brought Me

Leaving for a long journey spanning several months or years marks a lifetime. Our current sabbatical year is not our first major trip, yet many friends and readers ask us about the virtues > or personal benefits of such an undertaking.

What can this long journey bring you?

A question for which 1001 answers come to mind...

This question has been asked of me many times: >

For some of my conversation partners, I sense a genuine curiosity, full of openness and willingness to engage. For others, a hint of jealousy with undertones...

Is it really useful to leave for so long?

And to leave several times for long trips?

What does your journey have that mine doesn't?

To compare in order to understand. A typically human approach, centered on oneself and one's experience... for better or worse.

There are plenty of responses to this great question of > from travel, but they are often canned responses. And the problem with canned responses is that they sound hollow.

The problem with clichés is not that they contain false ideas, but rather that they are superficial formulations of very good ideas. (Alain de Botton)

Without thought, I will spontaneously state clichés that surely correspond in part to my reality... but which remain clichés nonetheless. These easy answers have spared me a deeper reflection for a more personal response.

Self-confidence, adaptability, learning a language, maturity, sociability, daring, improvisation skills, humility... all benefits > of travel.

But if we looked closer, what response could I find for those seeking meaning and rationalization of travel?

Sometimes, a nuance hidden in the formulation of these questions about the benefits of travel bothers me: that of utility.

Travel must be useful. It must have a purpose. It must serve a function.

For some, this notion aligns with a desire to engage in a local project and do volunteer work. A lovely way to meet another country, another culture, and a different way of living.

But in some cases, this logic of utility is, in my opinion, pushed too far. What lies beneath?

The fear of gaps in a resume? The apprehension about spontaneity and lack of security?

One of the great misfortunes of modern life is the lack of the unexpected, the absence of adventures.

(Théophile Gautier)

Must everything always have a meaning, a purpose, and utility? This way of thinking is, in my view, one of the greatest ills of the modern adult. We have lost one of the powers of childhood: the ability to act simply for pleasure. For no other reason than that of the heart and imagination. To play, to waste time, to realize oneself in one's passions, to observe the world with innocent delight.

What saddens me most in this logic of utility is that often, pleasure, personal fulfillment, and the quest for happiness do not seem to be valid arguments to justify choices like traveling...

They do not want to build their happiness; they only want to reduce their unhappiness.

(Bernard Weber)

Has this journey changed you?

Another question I have often been asked. And, to the great disappointment of my questioners, my answer is always: no! Can one really drastically change one's personality?

I believe that one reveals oneself and learns to live in peace with oneself. A part of the veil lifts every time a little more about who we are, what we want to be, and the strength that drives us from the first state to the second.

Ultimately, we do not change who we are. We change how we present ourselves to others.

But if travel does not change us, it makes us evolve, often through unexpected and astonishing paths... which are perhaps the only real means of growing.

If I had to retain just one learning, just one major change that long-term travel brings me, alongside all its evident benefits mentioned above, it would be this: freeing myself from my constraints.

Long journeys have this fascinating power to change our relationship with time. And time is perhaps the greatest constraint we know in our Western societies.

The horizon seems to recede, and the perspective expands. Nothing in front of us. No schedule. No imperatives. No obligations. Nothing. Nada. Nothing.

Except for those we agree to impose on ourselves.

I get up in the middle of the night to observe the stars or the sunrise because I decided to.

No one else can constrain me but myself. What incredible freedom it is to be the only one limiting it!

This initial high gives way to a deeper reflection. What constraints am I willing to impose on myself? And what constraints was I a slave to in my settled life?

It allows for a moment to reflect on one's free will and the vision of one's personal freedom. Why do I get up in the morning? Why do I accept orders/demands from others?

Very quickly, the question of the limits of one's freedom begins to question that of one's relationship with others... and one's ability to respect oneself while respecting others and the rules of the game. Setting boundaries. Responding to one's needs. Putting into perspective the urgency. Accepting not to please everyone. Putting into perspective the importance of approval and the need for recognition.

Ultimately, while traveling and in settled life, the only constraints we experience are those we accept... consciously or unconsciously. A small thought that changes everything.

Once this truth is accepted, it completely reframes one's choices in life and how to accept one's daily routine.

(Paulo Coelho)

Long-term travel has its own dynamics, quite different from the urgency of a city trip or the limited horizon of a planned journey. More than anything, I love the feeling of freedom it gives me.

This sabbatical year is not yet over, and we are already thinking about our future long-term travels. Traveling becomes a sweet addiction that is hard to break. One feels so alive, so whole... So much oneself. Surely the most beautiful gift of travel.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.

(St. Augustine)

And you, have you ever experienced a long journey? What do you answer when asked about what these long trips bring you?

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