Reisen ist Arbeit - Travel is work. This phrase was introduced to me during the first couple months of my
year in Munich – my first real international experience. If I remember correctly, it was in the
context of explaining culture shock and the U-curve of study abroad. Of course, at that time the exact meaning of
this was rather hazy for me, a 20-year-old preoccupied with collecting as many
travel stories as I could.
Nevertheless, it’s something that stuck with me back then, and it’s
become much more salient in my life the longer I stay overseas and come to terms
with the fact that travel isn’t always the most instagrammable thing out
there. In fact, it’s often not.
Apart from
the good things we all like to share, travel can be lonely when you’re on day
three of a solo trip and haven’t had meaningful conversation with anyone
yet. It’s overwhelming when you’re
trying to get basic necessities sorted after you first move to a foreign
country. It’s uncomfortable when you’re
on a 14+ hour bus ride with no leg room and a dude the size of a truck in the
seat next to you. It’s exhausting when
departure times force you to sleep in places you were never meant to sleep
in. It’s frustrating when so much of
what you’ve experienced can’t be shared with other people you care about.
It’s emotional
when you have to say goodbye more often than you’d like.
It’s heartbreaking
when you have to say goodbye sooner than you’d like.
Travel can
be downright brutal on you sometimes. Indeed,
I’ve lain awake quite a few nights wondering to myself what the hell I’m doing
halfway around the world, away from all things familiar.
So, why do
it?
Purpose. For each person it’s probably slightly
different, but to really succeed in long-term international travel, I’ve come
to believe you need to find a purpose in it beyond “seeing the world” or
“experiencing a new culture”. Notions
like that are good for a while, but what keeps you abroad after you’re not
absolutely enamored with everything you see?
What keeps you abroad after you’ve said goodbye to most of your friends
and sign on for another year or move somewhere else? What keeps you abroad after you feel yourself
becoming part of so many lives and places, but never fully belonging to one?
(Or in the words of the one and only Bilbo Baggins, “like butter spread over
too much bread”)
A purpose
does all that. A purpose is what keeps
you steady in all those valleys of travel.
It’s that mental piece of luggage you can take with you everywhere you
go, and it stays with you no matter the duration of your trip. It’s also something you can share with
everyone you meet as you form and reform your social circle in a world of constant
change. And should you lie awake on
those nights of doubt, it’s what’ll allow you to fall back asleep.
So, if
indeed Reisen ist Arbeit, then your purpose is exactly the thing
you should be working on as you travel.
After all, it’s the one thing that makes it worth it.
Much love,
ryry
