Steve Wade says in his guest post on Art of Backpacking, Is Travel The Easy Way Out?, “traveling requires a lot of courage. You need to be determined, independent, very sure of yourself and the decision you’re about to make, confident that you can go away for such a long period of time in far away and foreign places and it takes a bit of forward thinking and planning. It’s certainly not for the faint hearted.” That is certainly very true.

Some parents would say that we are being irresponsible when we decide to take a gap year instead of diving into the workforce. Other parents would understand our desire to get out into the real world and explore, just as long as we have a return ticket back home.

The part  that irks me about Steve’s post starts in his second paragraph. Is it a difficult decision to make when you decide to go from college to a job/career? No, it’s not. It’s what our society considers a natural progression. But then Steve undermines the entire job hunting process by saying, “you just find a job and work.” Actually, no. Anyone with real work experience knows that you don’t “just find a job and work.” That’s an obnoxious statement to make. Try telling that to the millions of people with hefty mortgage payments and who have been unemployed for the past year and a half. Tell that to my neighbor who leaves the house at 7AM and comes home at 2AM just to make $107 a day. Tell that to the recent college grad with a $60,000 school loan to just “find a job and work.”

If it were that easy, we’d all have jobs that pay extremely well with superior health benefits and allow us 3 months to travel every year. Wouldn’t it be easier to just run away, travel and get your mind off of this stress of tackling a competitive workforce? I would tend to think so. It takes a confident, responsible and resilient person to continue job hunting in the face of so many rejections and under so much stress. That’s not the same courage it takes to pack up your things and travel but it certainly isn’t for the faint hearted either.

Steve also goes to say that ” It’s not something that requires much thought or planning.” Really? Anyone who has ever written a resume, and not just a mediocre template-based resume you copied off Google, will tell you that it requires plenty of thought. They will also tell you that it takes plenty of planning to familiarities and fully understand the company and position you are interviewing for. Anyone with experience will tell you that deciding to “just find a job and work” takes A LOT of thought and A LOT of planning.

Lastly, Steve says, “It’s the people who choose not to take a career break and travel but continue with the 9-5 daily grind all their lives who have taken the easiest option.” Coming from someone who works 50 hours a week and commutes 13 hours every week, there is nothing easy about the grind. Lack of mental stimulation and passion can wear away on you physically, mentally and spiritually. You become a shell of the person you once were. But I guess compared to roaming free on the road, grinding 50 hours a week is definitely the much easier option.

Do you think traveling is the easy way out?

If you haven’t come across it already, On The Go Tours is currently hosting a Get Rid Of Me contest. The winner receives a 6 months around the world trip to 18 countries from China to Kenya to Russia and more! I’ve entered to win. You can either vote for me now! Or read my schpeel & then vote for me.

I’ve always been a workaholic. I’ve been this way for so long that I don’t know what to do with myself when I don’t have work. Well, actually, I do. I go and find more work. My first trip abroad was to Shanghai. I was studying at Fudan University. I arrived a week early and had absolutely nothing to do. Before my full-fledged wanderlust kicked in, I sat in my room eating cup noodles & doing Chinese homework that was yet to be assigned to me. (What a loser, right?)

It seems like all I do is work. I worked my butt off in high school to get a 4-year Honors scholarship for college. In college, I took classes full time and interned at an ad agency part time starting Freshman year – even though everyone told me to stop wasting my time because no one would hire a Freshman.

After I graduated college, I went straight into working 50 hours a week. I didn’t take a vacation. No gap year. No time off. No nothing. I just dove right into it. So now, for the past year and a half, I’ve been working 50 hours a week, studying for my GMAT and volunteering (digitally) while trying to keep my blog afloat with content you guys would actually read.

Why should you vote to Get Rid Of Me? Because I need you to help me get my life back. So please, just give me the boot & I’ll buy you a beer the next time I roam onto your land. Vote for me!

P.S. I know the chances of me winning are pretty slim but refreshing the page every 5 seconds and seeing the number of votes go up will keep me entertained at work.

Copyright All rights reserved by PatrickSmithPhotography

Nowadays, everyone is a busy bee…including me. So I think that a heads up every week about what’s to come on A Pair of Panties & Boxers will, hopefully, give someone out there something to look forward to.

• August 9 – Book Review & Giveaway: 100 Places In Italy Every Woman Should Go
• August 11 – Get Rid Of Me: Give Me The Boot & I’ll Buy You A Beer
• August 12 – 8 Volunteer Opportunities In Chiang Mai, Thailand
• August 13 – Photo Friday: Sunset At The Williamsburg Waterfront, NY

Which post are you most looking forward to?

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If you’ve just so happen to miss every single one of my blog posts this week, here’s a short recap:

August 2nd: Photo Collection: Faces of The Future

Since everyone seems to love this post, I am working on the second installment of Faces of The Future. If you have any photos of children you’ve taken while traveling around the world, please send them to monica@apairofpantiesandboxers.com to be featured in this next photo collection.

August 4th: Nine Rules To Follow When Traveling The World

Stop speaking English

English is not a universal language. Yelling a phrase louder and slower doesn’t make your vocal chords magically turn it into Spanish or Chinese or German or any other language besides English. If you’re traveling to a foreign country, don’t expect, or hope, that the people you interact with can speak English. According to National Geographic, “In the mid-20th century, nearly 9 percent of the world’s population grew up speaking English as their first language. In 2050, the number is expected to be 5 percent.” It’s good to be bi-lingual. (Read more!)

August 5th: VolunTEARS: A Tale of Woe From a Traveling Do-Gooder

Guest post by @conniehum – 2010 was going to be my year of giving back. 2009 had been nothing short of amazing for me: living in a posh home in Istanbul, yacht trips on the Mediterranean, lazy mornings in London coffee houses, sleeping in a cave in the remote mountains of Petra under the star-lit night sky… My life has been amazing and as I started planning my Asia trip for 2010, I just knew that I had to give something back to this world that had given me such a privileged and wonderful life. I was going to volunteer abroad! (Read more!)

August 6th: Photo Friday: Colonial Town Hall In Comayagua