Why We Travel

Written by Demond Mills from Too Square to be Hip

November 13, 2023

If you ask your dormmates, friends, family, and acquaintances why they travel, you will be rewarded with a garden-variety of answers ranging from the bland to the fascinating. This is likely because no two travelers are the same. From the tawdry barrooms of Bourbon Street in New Orleans to the blessed waters of Lake Ohrid, with its army of ancient churches looming above it, the world has something to offer to every type of traveler. Among those archetypes you will find are the culture vultures, foodies, extreme sports enthusiasts, art aficionados, nature lovers, socialites, history buffs, the experiences seeker and even the braggart, for whom the experience of travel is rather perfunctory.

I travel to be intrepid, but upon second thought that’s not quite correct. This word, oft used ironically, roughly means to be fearless. Yet, no man is fearless unless he is completely deranged, and courage is to act even though fear is present. Fear, after all, is part of our DNA. It has moulded us overtime and spit us back up into the world, the wretched creatures we are. No, intrepid is not the right word, it is too cliché, now synonymous with generic travel blogs and, stripped of its true meaning, has really lost its impetus. No, I define it differently, and only a new word will do! To me, to be a traveler, not just a tourist, and there is a difference, is to be bold. To be bold is to be able to take risks and display courage in one’s life. Winston Churchill defines courage as the most important of qualities because it is that that “guarantees all others”, and why have qualities if you are not to act on them. 

To me to be bold is to have the ability to take it all in; big trip or small, pedestrian or exotic, new location or old, and find meaning in those experiences. To be undaunted is to be like the uninhibited beatniks of Jack Kerouac or great travelers of yore, not so much in their excesses, but in their sheer lust for life. To be bold is to live like a bohemian and a renegade. As Kerouac would say

“the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”” 

As insane as this excerpt can sound, he is not wrong! Life can be so mundane that one must really extract the very marrow of it to fully quench their hunger. To the uninitiated we may sound mad as well, because god forbid it may be uncomfortable to live this way. No, no, no! To the traveler, to be bold is found in experiences, to meet new people, to try new food, to make a fool of oneself! This is not only a philosophical position! It is undeniable, scientifically speaking, that new experiences provide benefits to our cognitive health. It can also be bold to know what your limits are, especially when it comes to your deeply held convictions. Boldness allows you the experience to understand where those same convictions come from. 

Could Hemingway have penned the Old Man and the Sea had he not spent many of his days on the waters of the gulf of Mexico? Would Byron be seen as daring had he not met Ali Pasha? Could TE Lawrence have written the Seven Pillars of Wisdom without feeling the harsh desert winds in Wadi Rum? These questions are self evident and need not be answered. 

I would like to close this little essay with another quote from Karouac, again from his seminal novel On the Road. 

“I was surprised, as always, by how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.”

About the Author:

Desmond Mills – Too Square to be Hip: A narcissist’s guide to travel and culture

Always an avid reader, this self-indulgent traveler, with a penchant for meta humor, doubles as an engineer by day and a failed novelist by night. You can usually find him immersed in works of history, science fiction and horror.