There’s never going to be the right time. Never the perfect weather. You will always be tired. You will always feel like you need to rest instead of running around. You’ll always have things to do. It’ll be uncomfortable. Anything out of the ordinary is uncomfortable. Silly things like Where to eat, to sleep and even where to take a shit, will keep you from going on that journey. These questions make us cling on to our comfortable homes and the bathroom we love so much. Packing is a nightmare, planes area death machines filled with little creatures called babies that spread viruses and try to kill you even before you get to the destination. So it’s easy to come up with excuses. Stay in our comfort zone. Stick with the familiar town. But where’s the fun in that.
Get up and go. Pack the bare minimum, plan as little as possible. Stop waiting for the right time. Just get up and go. Look up the time for the first bus out and get on it. Far or near, in the same country or in a different continent, it doesn’t fucking matter. What matters is you move away from the familiar. Push yourself, get out of your comfort zone. It doesn’t have to be the best trip of your life. It just has to be different from what you do on a daily basis.
Not every trip needs to be Instagrammable. And if you haven’t noticed, nobody gives a shit about the picture of you sitting by the pool, pretending to stare at the sunset, with some ridiculous caption like #icouldgetusedtothis bullshit. You probably could but your bank account definitely can’t. So shut the fuck up and stop putting unrealistic expectations on your travels. Instead just get up and go. Find a cheap place and not a 5-star resort. Dress shabbily, don’t hit the bars. Go explore, get lost, camp out, hitchhike, starve, skip the buffet at your hotel and eat where the locals eat, drink what the locals drink and not your hometown exported beer. Hate it, love it, but nevertheless try it.
Your legs will hurt, you might not get to eat what you want or shit in peace, but if you don’t, you’ll regret all the missed opportunities. The older you get, the less fun it’ll be. You’ll never have enough time or money, so just do it now even though you have neither. Make it work. Just pack up and go.
Kaushal Sadashiv 