“You may think the grass is greener on the other side, but if you take the time to water your own grass, it would be just as green.” –Unknown

Everyone at some point in life looks ‘over the fence’ and believes that their life would be better spent in a completely different location or with a different job, or even a different partner. The truth is that sometimes changes in life are absolutely necessary to maintain, or to find happiness, however change based on negative reasons, selfish lust, or jaded feelings usually lead to continued or renewed negativities. Typically, decisions made so that one can run away will turn sour, as nothing really has changed. If you simply feel complacent and stale where you live, then get out and travel the world, or perhaps move to the place you’ve always dreamt of living. But keep in mind that every place, everywhere has issues. Even if your problems don’t follow you along in your life changes, it’s important to keep in mind that nothing and nowhere is perfect. If life were perfect in that faraway paradise, it would be where everyone would move to and live their lives – it would be THE place to live and everywhere else that wasn’t perfect would be deserted.

Everyone is consumed by life’s trickiness and confusions, yet most problems are quite minuscule. It can be rather funny when you look back at all the grief you had for a certain issue, but rarely think on it now that time has passed. Some problems seem as if they’re life or death, and while some are absolutely serious, majority are simply blown out of proportion and could be dealt with much easier, with less drama and less stress. If everyone would take a step back from troublesome situations – by breathing in deep, then taking the time to consider the problem with a few key points in mind – then most problems wouldn’t be so heartbreaking and life-shattering. The next time you’re feeling like life has the better of you, think upon your situation from the eyes of other people-from-around-the-world and consider their viewpoint – is it really THAT serious?! Then ask yourself: ‘Will I even remember this issue in a few months? How about a few years? Or what about in ten?’ Likely, the answer will be no and hopefully you will allow yourself to breathe easy and relax, moving logically through the problem at hand.

Often, a place may not be quite like you had imagined prior to visiting. Most of the time, you’re way off and it exceeds expectations in unconventional ways. But a place can also be quite dull in comparison to what you may have anticipated. Every place in the world is beautiful and wonderful in its own way. When I visited Dublin, Ireland, I was a bit let down to be honest. I’m not entirely sure if the Irish stigma of merry little pubs and all-night drinking is shared throughout the world, like it is in America, but Dublin didn’t quite fit the bill for me. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that that was how it is in Ireland all of the time, but I was expecting a bit more of the natural Irish heritage and culture to be apparent in Dublin.

Life's purpose for humanity wasn't to be bound by the soul-crushing shackles of the corporate world and the 9 to 5 circus of continual dead-end jobs. The vast majority of the population simply chooses to embrace mediocrity, and I can’t seem to fathom why. From my viewpoint, they seem to be engulfed in fear, too frightened to make the alterations to their life that would lead to true contentment and adventure. Either that, or they're too comfortable or complacent to venture off the often-traveled, asphalt-paved highway to the commercially-sponsored dream (AKA the “American Dream”) and to take the time to create their own path.

     It’s sad, but most travelers have the wrong outlook on travel, which tends to make their experiences suffer. It seems to be a popular consensus nowadays, that travel is all about “how many countries and sites you can visit, as fast as you can.” This is not what travel is really about and traveling at lightning speed certainly doesn’t count towards having rich, memorable, life-altering experiences. I often talk about how true travel is a powerful, life-changing force and slow travel is the best way to experience it! It can be easy (especially for short-term travelers) to lose track of the reason for travel and to get caught up in a site-seeing frenzy.

     Daily, I am reminded of just how far our world and the richness of culture has fallen. We are surrounded by advertisements that promote inadequacy, where it’s sole purpose is to drive people towards greed and materialism. You can’t turn on the television without some sort of brain-numbing filth consuming you. Humankind as a whole has become domesticated and has lost sight of most of the natural instincts that once defined our race. Things like the drive for discovery and exploration have been lost, as well as the quest for honor and the respect of morals was apparently been thrown out of the window ages ago.