by Jordan Phillips<\/p>\n
Every time you click on the popular page on Instagram your feed will become flooded with young people exploring exotic locations and staying in luxury resorts. Their bios always have the same formula: their age (usually under 23), an airplane emoji, and a philosophical quote about traveling.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As you keep scrolling through you begin to wonder what you\u2019re doing with your life. You\u2019re sitting in your dorm eating ramen while \u2018@alexisren\u2019 and \u2018@jayalvarrez\u2019 gallivant around the world together without a care in the world. All of the comments are a version of the same thing: goals. They\u2019re jumping out of airplanes, swimming with sharks, kissing in the forest\u2014they\u2019re the living embodiment of your Pinterest \u2018Wanderlust\u2019 board. And they\u2019re under 20 years old.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Clicking on another profile you see a yogi bending all over the world with quotes about wandering wherever your heart longs to go. Well, your heart wanted guac at Chipotle but you didn\u2019t want to pay the extra charge. Your heart also thought going on that Tinder date would be a good idea too (it never is). Meanwhile other people your age are going on exciting adventures around the world. Does that make you less of a person than they are? Does that make them more accomplished? More successful? More worldly?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
No.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It\u2019s natural to feel envious of the profiles you see on social media, especially when they\u2019re of people that are your age and while you\u2019re studying for exams they\u2019re riding elephants in Thailand. It doesn\u2019t make you feel any better when their captions are quotes that literally suggest that you aren\u2019t as understanding as you would be if you traveled.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cMan cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.\u201d \u2013 Andre Gide. Does that mean you aren\u2019t courageous because you aren\u2019t riding horses through the rainforest? No. You are courageous in your own way, you don\u2019t need a passport stamp to prove it. Yes, I know what they\u2019re doing looks fun. It probably is, but don\u2019t let it poison your outlook on the life you have.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Traveling doesn\u2019t make you a better person. It doesn\u2019t make you more understanding. It doesn\u2019t make you smarter or kinder. It doesn\u2019t make you more go-with-the-flow. It can, but that doesn\u2019t mean it will. Just because you travel doesn\u2019t mean you suddenly know the meaning of life, and if you don\u2019t travel you\u2019ll never find it. Sure traveling can be great but you shouldn\u2019t feel like less of a human if you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Zen captions about \u201cpicking up your life and moving because it\u2019s good for your soul\u201d or \u201cyou\u2019ll never know yourself until you travel\u201d subtly suggest that you must not care about yourself enough to strike out on an adventure. Traveling is great, but it doesn\u2019t mean you suddenly know all of life\u2019s questions. Your life is fine. You have to work full time while going to school You live paycheck to paycheck and the only vacation you get is your day off. You aren\u2019t less of a person. You live in a dinky apartment with your other broke college friends. Just because you aren\u2019t staying in a loft in Amsterdam doesn\u2019t mean you aren\u2019t living. You walked your dog down the bike trail instead of walking the Great Wall of China. That\u2019s okay, it really is. Having responsibilities can teach you just as much, if not more than traveling can. It\u2019s important to keep in mind that a lot of those accounts are being sponsored and don\u2019t have to pay for their travel expenses; chances are they aren\u2019t living that lifestyle on a minimum wage job.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t let social media shame you into thinking that you aren\u2019t living a full life just because you aren\u2019t in a new country each week. Don\u2019t resent the life you have because it doesn\u2019t seem as glamorous as the people you see on Instagram. I\u2019ve met plenty of people who have traveled the globe but have learned nothing and people that have never left the state but are full of life wisdom. The act of traveling doesn\u2019t make you a better person no more than taking a first aid class makes you a doctor.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If you get the opportunity to travel, great! Go and explore but don\u2019t shame those who don\u2019t have the opportunity into thinking that they aren\u2019t living. Getting to experience another culture and interact with locals can be an incredibly enriching experience if you are open to it. There\u2019s nothing wrong with you just because you\u2019re eating Easy Mac for the fourth time in one week and drinking cheap wine out of the bottle with your roommates while watching Netflix (from your ex\u2019s roommate\u2019s parent\u2019s account). You\u2019re in college and being broke is the norm. Your current lifestyle may not be glamorous or exciting but there are plenty of moments and memories to cherish. You are working towards bettering your future, and that is nothing to be ashamed of.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are endless opportunities to learn and grow as a person anywhere in the world, from the Kremlin in Russia to rush hour traffic on I4, because personal growth comes from within. You have the same chance to learn the same lessons as the \u201cglamorous\u201d accounts that you envy. Life lessons have the same value no matter where in the world you are when you learn them, so don\u2019t worry or stress about what you see on social media.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Remember that when you scroll through Instagram next time because while traveling is a great experience, so is loving the life you have.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jordan Phillips Every time you click on the popular page on Instagram your feed will become flooded with young people exploring exotic locations and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":2008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[649,316],"tags":[766],"class_list":["post-1976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-issue-6-fall-2016","tag-travel"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n