The Traveler’s Moment

Every traveler has a moment. I’ve spoken with people who have been traveling for five months, and I’ve spoken with people who have been traveling for five years. Almost all of them are able to identify the moment (or series of moments) in which they decided to trade tradition for travel. The moment where they found the courage to take the leap and embrace the unpredictability that only exploration can bring.

For some people, this moment is an almost immediate shift in thinking that occurs after a traumatic, life-changing event. For others, it’s simply acknowledging their inherent need for cultural exchange, and finding the strength to reject the societal expectations that have been sculpting their lives since birth.

I met a man who was propelled by heartbreak. After eight years, his girlfriend dumped him and left him for his best friend, leaving him to question, well… everything. He told me, “I could never get her to make me a coffee. That was her thing. For some reason, our entire relationship, she would always refuse to make me a coffee. Every time that I asked her, she would tell me to make my own coffee and walk away. Then, the day I got back from vacation, I walked into her apartment and she asked me, ‘Would you like me to make you a coffee?’ And I knew.” Within months he quit his job as an upper-level customer service manager in Italy and became the co-owner of a surf camp in Tenerife. A stack of surfboards now accompanies him on his morning commute to the ocean.

Most travelers have spent at least a little time behind a desk. Answering telephones, filling out progress reports and rejoicing in 10 fleeting days of vacation per year can actually be an important catalyst for those who finally say “I’m done.” I spoke with a Russian woman who took leave from her job in order to volunteer in Iceland. Despite staying one month in what was an empty and relatively desolate area, she came home from her first international exchange feeling as though she had finally met “people who were alive.” Determined and terrified, she returned to work and immediately tendered her resignation with the phrase “I would rather die from hunger than live in a cage.” She has been traveling for seven years.

There’s a shift that happens during the traveler’s moment. Bliss, euphoria, enlightenment – call it whatever you want. It’s mesmerizing. Suddenly and all at once, the narrow, predictable path of your life branches into countless trails of opportunity. Instead of a future built around one company, one job and one profession, you are surrounded by unburdened potential. The direction of your life is dictated by you, not by your next employee evaluation, and you have the ability to do, see and be whatever you want.

Sometimes, however, the traveler’s moment is birthed out of necessity. Those of us (myself included) who are fortunate enough to seek out travel independently reflect on our newfound lifestyle with smiles and pride, whereas others see it as a long-overdue turning point.

Five years ago, a man from Italy was laid off of his job as an architect. Soon after, he received a phone call from his mother asking him to board a plane and meet her at her sister’s home in Naples. When he arrived he learned that his aunt had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, two years prior. She survived for another 21 days. In those painful three weeks, as he helped his mother care for her ailing sister, he was struck by the painful fragility of human existence. He recalled those who had only made a brief appearance in life, and mourned the loss of the people that they could have become. In that instant, he chose to travel and consume the beautiful, fleeting moments of life as quickly as possible. As we spoke, he marveled at the time we shared together and grinned. “When again will this happen? Just now. Right now.”

It is often said that those who are traveling are searching for something. I’ve been told time and time again that traveling will be a good opportunity to “find myself” and that I’ll be sure to “find what I’m searching for.” Perhaps it’s my own naiveté and I am unknowingly on a long and desperate hunt for self-actualization or the romance of the century, but I like to think that traveling is an outcome of having already discovered what I’ve been looking for.

Photos by Jokke De Roo

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