There is no truer statement than "traveling is a fool's paradise". Many people enjoy the luxury of traveling. They think that a long vacation can solve any and all of their problems, but we all know that’s not true. You cannot run away from what troubles you. It will follow you where ever you go. Wouldn’t that be perfect if you could just run away from your problems for 2 weeks, and spend your days on a sunny beach, run your fingers through the silky sand, and come back with everything perfect again. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t love that. I have found myself many a time thinking that if I could just go somewhere else things would be different, too bad that’s not true. To be honest running away from your problems only makes them worse. Sure you get 2 weeks to sleep, relax, enjoy a spa treatment, maybe do a little shopping on the side, but at the end of those 2 weeks you have to go back to your normal life. You can’t live in your vacation forever, otherwise you’d end up bored and broke. Even though plenty of us think about getting away from it all, only a fool would actually take that idea to heart.
The idea of escaping your issues through travel is along the same lines as running away from home when your little. You get upset about something and think that there is only one way to solve things… you pack up your little bag of stuff and walk about half way down the street, only to realize you miss your parents. When you travel to get away from your problems you may pack a little more than a small bag and a stuffed animal, but when you get to your destination you end up running back home and loving all the things you hated 5 seconds ago. True that traveling is for fools, but even a fool can redeem himself on travels. There is something awfully wonderful about traveling. I simple cannot sit here and point out that those who use travel to get away remain fools the entire trip. An intelligent fool (now there’s and oxymoron) learns from this. When you travel you do have a chance to learn more about yourself in a different setting than you normally live in. I think that there is a big part of traveling that helps us appreciate what we really have. For instance when I went to Paris, I was so excited to be there. I mean come on it’s the fashion capital of the world, and I was happy to get away from the California Casual, constant fast food, and just the same old thing. However, after a month in Paris, I found myself missing everything in San Diego. I missed the amazing Mexican food, I missed my best friends, I missed the occasional ability to still be seen as socially acceptable in a pair of dare I say it…sweat pants (the Parisians would never dream of wearing those). When I returned to San Diego and one of my best friends met me at the airport I was so happy to see him. By missing all of these things when I came back that friendship was better than ever, and Mexican food tasted amazing, and even the occasional pair of sweat pants made me smile. I think that though Emerson is correct in saying “traveling is for fools”, but I think that even when you go away for the wrong reasons you can come back for all the right ones.
