Davyn Adamscheck
Dr. Ross
Composition 122.05
7 November 2018
Major Paper Assignment
Traveling in your Twenty’s
“Live your life by a compass, not a clock.” This quote by Steven Covey is what life is all about. During your twenty’s I believe that it is important to get out and explore if you have the opportunity. While you are in your twenty’s, traveling can benefit your life in many ways that at first don’t seem reasonable, as well as creating the experiences and memories that you will cherish for the rest of your life. Traveling is expensive but it offers many health benefits both mentally and physically, with less responsibility in your twenty’s it makes for the ideal time to travel since you have the most financial freedom at the time.
Traveling the world benefits you as a person in many ways, but the most important way that traveling affects you is your health. When you are traveling, it helps you build your health both mentally and physically. A study by James F. Petrick and Chun-chu Chen claimed that, “Tourism has been widely regarded as a mentally and physically healthy pursuit.” They also came to the conclusion that people who are traveling are much happier than those who are not claiming, “while you are traveling and challenging your brain in new scenarios and different life situations, traveling effects your mental health much more than physical health.” Mental health not only includes yourself, but it also effects the people that surround you. Traveling with the ones that you love or the people that are important to you helps you form and better the bonds that you have with them. Especially when it comes to family, it is shown to form better relationships with parents and children. Also, when it comes to loving relationships traveling has proven to have an effect on longer lasting relationships and lower divorce rates between couples. When you put yourself in unknown situations you are challenging your brain. “Several empirical studies since have revealed a positive relationship between leisure activities and marital satisfaction” (Durko). These are the situations that help you grow as a person, learn new things, and become more culturally diverse and aware. Being outside of your comfort zone is very important so that you don’t become complacent with the person that you are, and so that you continue to grow individually. Physically, if you are able to travel the world, you need to make it a priority. While you are traveling you most likely won’t have all of the everyday luxuries that you have at home. You will have to be physically active whether you are walking around a new town, backpacking through the Alps, or biking through Barcelona. “It helps you remain physically active and offers the brain new challenges” (On the Road). Traveling can benefit your health both mentally and physically, but to be able to travel it is extremely important that you are not tied down.
Another reason you should travel during your twentysomethings is that in most cases, you are not tied down and don’t have anything holding you back. Who all feels like they want to do something in their life, but you can’t find the time? Many people in their twentysomethings feel as if they have one too many obligations to fulfill before they are free whether that is school, a job, or any other obligation. But, as you are graduating college and heading towards your career path, this is the best time to get away and learn more about yourself and your surroundings. Eventually, you will have a career that you will have to devote most of your time to. Or, you will be in the stage of life where you are starting a family and you need to have money to provide for and take care of them. As a regular college student, you are going to feel like you are overwhelmed almost every day. Most days you will have to deal with homework, exams, projects, and presentations. You may not get the opportunity to travel while you are still attending college for many reasons, mainly because as a student you have limited free time. But once it is all said and done, and you are done with school, what Is your next step? This is the best time to travel. The odds are you don’t have a steady long-term job, or provide for your family yet, so why not provide for yourself. If these factors don’t affect you, then Jeff Goins says it best “So if you still have a reasonable amount of control over your circumstances, you should do what really matters. Because life won’t always be just about you.” Traveling the world while you are not tied down is the greatest treat you could ever provide for yourself due to all the beneficial factors that come along with traveling, such as happiness. “Travel simply teaches you how to be happy. You’ll become more relaxed, more confident, and see the world as a brighter place (Adina)”. Be happy, be free, you are not tied down. Being tied down is a major factor in traveling, although having financial freedom is one of the most important aspects of being able to travel.
Lastly, you should travel during your twentysomethings because this is the time in your life when you have the most financial freedom. Debt, loans, limited amounts of money, these are all factors of what financial freedom entail. Being prepared for your future and how you are going to spend and make money is how I would define financial freedom. Do you really have financial freedom as a college student or as a recently graduated college student? Most people would answer no, but almost everyone in this position has plenty of freedom to travel the world no matter the financial situation they have been put in or have put themselves in. For example, many students that are finishing college have student loans or some other type of debt they need to pay off. But how are you going to pay them off anyways if you don’t have a career lined up the day you graduate college. Traveling doesn’t mean you need to go far, far away for a long amount of time. But its rather, where would you like to go and see that isn’t familiar to you, that would challenge your brain and help you further yourself as a human. “Traveling, you start taking most of these things as normal routine, we lose fears, we get used to things, we learn to live by ourselves and with time we start building confidence in ourselves” (WorldbyIsa). Take a limited amount of time and get away, before that chance may be taken from you because you are occupied with a lame boring routine we all call, life. The day will come when you have to settle down and find that long term job that will help you pay off loans and provide for your family. I’m not saying that those factors shouldn’t be a focal point in your life, but I’m saying that once you decide to go that route, the opportunities for you to be able to go and do whatever it is that you want to do will soon be thrown out the window. In some situations, you will have the money to be able to get out of the country for a few days and go explore territories you never thought imaginable. However, some people might only be able to take a road trip to the nearest national park. What’s the difference? Traveling has no specific guidelines or criteria to define it. All that matters is what you want to do and the experiences you want to experience, just travel, you never know what you may see and the memories you might make. “It’s worth whatever investment or money or sacrifice of time that may be required on your part” (Goins). No matter where you are at in life, you can always learn new things and become a better version of yourself.
Although traveling can provide oneself with the abundance benefits that I have mentioned, many believe that traveling is too expensive during their twentysomethings. Traveling must include transportation, flight or car, a place to stay, and every day amenities such as food. Costs such as airfare and a place to sleep are usually what takes up the most amount of money while you are traveling, however there may be some things you are unaware of. For example, the two main things that Christopher Elliot mentions when concerned about overseas and international travel are surcharges to credit cards on purchases abroad, outrageous rates on currency exchanges, and cellular roaming fees. “A recent Harris Interactive poll found that nearly 7 in 10 American travelers pay costly roaming fees charged by domestic carriers for cell phone use overseas (Elliot).” Traveling can be expensive in some cases, but that’s your own fault if it is too pricey. Nowadays, there are many different websites and applications that help you find the cheapest most reasonable travel prices possible. Also, there are different ways to save money throughout your trip such as staying in hostiles, backpacking, packing extra food so you don’t have to buy stuff for every meal, and the list goes on. If you want to travel the right way for the best price, you can’t click on the first price you see and go with it. Just as in school, a trip, especially overseas, takes a lot of planning and researching especially if you are at a point in life where you need to be smart with your money. Many say that it is too expensive, but those are the people that don’t follow these tips and just go with the first price they see, there is always a way around the price tag, you just have to find it.
No matter where you are at in your life during your twentysomethings, go out and travel. Too many people make the decision to not travel and that is one of their biggest regrets later in life. Make a conscious effort to get out, explore the world that you live in, learn more about yourself, and better your future life. Being able to make memories and learn new things while you are traveling doesn’t just affect you, but it also effects everyone that will surround you in life, whether that’s in present time or at some point in the future. You’re not only doing yourself a justice by traveling and reaping the benefits that come a long with it, but you are helping those people as well. Not everyone has the ability mentally or physically to be able to go out and explore the world, and that’s okay. But if you are one of the many people that have the ability, just know that if you are ever contemplating and wishing you get travel, just do it. Make a promise to your current and future self; commit to travel.
Works Cited
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Durko, Angela M. and Petrick, James F., "The Benefits of Travel: Family and Relationships Review of Literature" (2016). Tourism Travel and Research Association: Advancing Tourism Research Globally. 16. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/ttra/2013/AcademicPapers_Oral/16.
Elliott, Christopher. “The Hidden Costs of Traveling Abroad.” National Geographic Traveler, vol.26, no. 5, July 2009, pp. 10–15. EBSCOhost,
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Garau, Jaume G. “Tourist Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction.” Academia.edu – Share Research,
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Goins, Jeff. “3 Reasons to Travel While You're Young.” Goins, Writer, 12 Jan. 2015. goinswriter.com/travel-young/.
“On the Road with Good Health.” Harvard Men’s Health Watch, vol. 20, no. 12, July 2016, p.
5. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=116433698&site=ehost-live.
“9 Reasons Why Traveling Is Important.” World By Isa, 12 Apr. 2018,
www.worldbyisa.com/reasons-why-traveling-is-important/.