Month: July 2019
Travel Youtubers
I love and hate videos on youtube about travel.
Maybe because I don’t understand completely why I even enjoy traveling. Most of the time I get irritated and tired and don’t really know what to do. I haven’t hit a rhythm between spontaneity and planning ahead.
I watch these travel youtubers, really cool people (my favorites are Kara and Nate, check them out), and I sorta feel sad about lives lived full time in travel. I also start to compare what I’ve done to these youtubers. Suddenly the amount of countries I’ve visited feels insufficient, the amount of experiences I’ve had mediocre.
Comparison is the thief of joy, people like to quote. I tend to frame that statement around this: comparison makes me feel bad about myself.
But as I thought about why I sometimes feel sad watching travel videos on youtube, I realized that comparison also robs me of hope.
I compare my life to travelers on youtube and think, Huh, that’s cool, maybe I could earn money of youtube and travel and stuff, but I hate making youtube videos, the kinds that earn money at least. There’s an entire industry around the “best” ways to earn money and travel. I see that I don’t know the right way, so I figure I should just emulate.
Comparison doesn’t just make me feel inferior. It makes me narrow my dreams to the spectrum of what I’ve seen.
That’s maybe sadder than traditional comparison. The whole point of travel is to expand the scope of possibility. I’ve functionally diminished travel to only the ways I’ve seen it on youtube. A waste!
You know what’s weird? How much of our lives are complacent mentalities. Gosh, wouldn’t the world be amazing if we all dedicated ourselves to the art of possibility? To reframing our mindsets?
okay that’s all!
xoxo,
cecilia
Cecilia Joy 