I know travel has always been a hit for people from all walks of life. I am sure people are excited whenever they pack up and head to a new adventure, including me! We always see photos of friends and family members on Instagram and Facebook splurging during their days in different countries, just to come back and travel again. But have we thought about if the money spent on traveling is worth it? Travel may not be as valuable as we expect it to be. A plain journey in a new place sometimes doesn’t deserve our precious deposits. And instead, we could go for a good treat or a newly released lipstick!
Don’t get me wrong. It is just you can’t promise that you will find your true self after staying at a foreign place for a while. It varies from person to person, and we would only know if the trip is valuable once we touch down there. I have heard some friends complaining about how they have anticipated a wonderful journey, and have spent thousands of dollars on it, while it turned out it was not that exciting or rewarding. But their money had been given out and there was not a way of getting it back. We have to be cautious before we pull out our wallets and decide to travel.
I have a close friend who is obsessed with flying to several places every year. Besides local gifts, fairly empty accounts, and tanned skin, I see nothing gained from his travel but a kind of addiction for lying around in those different destinations. He was happy at the beginning of his adventure; he went sightseeing and would binge-eat local cuisine. Gradually, though, his curiousness faded and he became fatigued from these travels, so he went home and was left with barely anything.
While travel can’t integrate into your social status and identity, possessions can. The outcome of these voyages is having fun, and that’s it. We probably will not get famous or enhance our reputation by standing at various tourist sites. However, owning a certain amount of possessions is viewable to the world around us, so we can explicitly display our social status.
Buy a lipstick, get a new iPhone, or grab some food from your favorite spot. All of these could be more direct and tangible ways to spend your money than on a vague and unsure experience. Also, make sure that what you purchase is of high quality and is useful. When we are college students who have stressful lifestyles and are broke AF, it would be more lucrative to engage in material consumption.
Aimless travel isn’t worth our financial budgets that we have worked hard for. The alternative could be spending our money on something deserving and useful. We do not want to regret having our money spent on luxurious travel if we do not gain something from it.