Nowadays, I seem to read a lot of people talking about how they’re filled with incredible wanderlust. Not that I have an issue with having a desire to travel—I have it myself, but the use of “wanderlust” is cloying. But that’s not really why I’m grousing in this here post.
I just finished reading an article by someone who’s full of—you guessed it—wanderlust and how she has a friend who has been indulging her own for the past year or so, backpacking all over the world and telling her to see the world while she’s still young. Her friend tells her that we’re all in control of our lives and we should just take off tomorrow we feel like it.
First of all, I would like to register the fact that I’m deathly envious of that person, after which I will proceed to scoff incredulously. Backpacking all over the world does sound like fun, but if she’s on a shoestring budget, then that shoestring must be spun out of pure gold and studded with jewels, because last I checked, what seems like a hefty amount of money here is just a mere handful of coins elsewhere in the world. The suggestion that we should all zip to the destination of our choice is both fascinating and laughable. There are plenty of countries that don’t let us in without visas, so to venture out into the world and travel, I would have to gather all the necessary documents, set an appointment, wait for that appointment to come, submit the application for a visa, then wait a couple of weeks or more to see if my application was approved. And before I even do that, I have to make sure that I have the money for airfare and expenses, and even more money to prove to the embassy that I won’t be taking a job and hiding out in their country. Kind of ruins the thought of taking off whenever we want.