
Whenever I ask people want to do before they die, it always seems that traveling is on top of their list. Yet, so few people travel—why? Sure there are the default answers, “It is too expensiveâ€, “I have no timeâ€, “Isn’t it dangerous?â€, “I have ‘responsibilities’ that I have to take care of†and the list goes on. However when it comes down to it, all of these statements are truly nothing but excuses.
For the longest time I have always wanted to go backpacking in Europe. However I faced the problem that many other people faced, regarding money, time, confusion, etc. All I knew was that it was a burning passion and aspiration of mine, and that no matter what—I wanted to go.
I can fortunately say that the last summer I was finally able to make that dream come true and I backpacked through Europe for 30 days. I started off in Paris, flew to Rome, took a train to Florence, took another train to Cinque Terre, continued to Venice, and then Prague, and finally flew out to London where I spent the rest of my time. How was my trip you ask? It was the trip of a lifetime. Words cannot express the breath-taking sights  I had, the cordial people I met, the aroma of the wine I had, the taste of the local cuisine, the awe-inspiring architecture, and oh yeah—the copious amount of photo-opportunities.
Now let’s get back to the issue of “practicality.†I’m sure all of you are thinking, “I would love to go travel to _______†but I don’t have the money for it. Honestly, I believe that to be nothing more than an excuse for most people.
Are you a student in college?—you truly have no excuse. You have the best time of your life to travel, when you have nothing truly “tying you down.†There are tons of study-abroad opportunities, and you still have summer breaks! Can’t afford it? Take out a loan—(that’s what I did). Sure you probably have no to little money right now, but what you don’t have in money—you have time.
Do you have a full-time job? Take a vacation and even travel for a week. Most jobs in the United States give you at least two weeks of vacation time a year. Don’t get any vacation time? Well you should probably quit the job you have right now and get a new one. Don’t have any money and a load of debt to pay off? Stop spending your money on things that you don’t need (cars, clothes, eating out, etc) and invest that money into saving for a trip. You probably have a half-million things lying around that you could probably sell on eBay or Craigslist as well.
Are you married and have kids? Take them with you! The last thing that you want to do is use your kids as an excuse. They will have the time of their life as well.
If you died tomorrow, would you have any regrets on not traveling? Where have you always wanted to go, but always made excuses why NOT to go instead of making excuses WHY to go. Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Korea, Tokyo, Hong-Kong, Africa, the Middle-East, Paris, or India? Or can you see yourself on your death bed, regretting not going because of
Considering that people always make reasons why NOT to go traveling, I will make some reasons WHY you should go traveling: