28/06/2019
The Shooting Star
What has travelling become? We study the places we’re going to, read reviews and guidebooks, and regurgitate them in our destinations. Like an exam in school where we’ll be graded. Leaving nothing to chance, no time for impulses, never venturing further than the pages we’ve read.
What has travelling become? We pour over photos of the places we’re going to, planning the trip based on the prettiest ones. Then we recreate those photos, sometimes editing the sky to be bluer than it is, sometimes cropping out the crowds that throng there for the same reason, sometimes showing a little more skin for attention. Like the whole purpose is to post those photos on social media and hashtag them. Like our lives will be graded by the likes we get.
What has travelling become? We realise dreams of places we’ve always wanted to go to, but when we get there, we show a complete disregard for locals. We shove our cameras into their faces without permission. We throng their quiet neighbourhoods in tour buses, we expect everyone to speak English, we mock their traditions, we get drunk and act obnoxious. As though we are being graded on the act of arriving somewhere even if we leave our curiosity and respect at home.
What has travelling become? We go to faraway places to escape the frantic pace of our 9 to 5 lives. Yet we end up squeezing everything into our days away, running from sight to sight from 9 to 5, never slowing down, never soaking up the feeling of being away, never opening up to unexpected encounters, never introspecting. Like we’re being graded by the quantity not the quality of what we do.
Was it always like this, or is this what travelling has become now?
📷: When travelling didn’t feel like this, in Trinidad and Tobago 🌱