Book The Damn Trip — My Thoughts on Travel Right Now
Many people are sitting around waiting for the "perfect time" to travel—when we have more money, when the world feels more stable + the future is certain, when Mercury isn't in retrograde or whatever excuse we're using this month. I know—I used to use all of those too.
Guess what? That perfect moment doesn't exist.
Every election year, I watch people put their dreams on hold. "I'll travel after things cool off," they say, as if the world has ever been completely settled. Meanwhile, life keeps moving forward at warp speed and time waits for no one.
Remember 2020, when we all thought we'd be locked down for a few weeks? Cut to me, staring out my window for an entire year while my passport collected dust in a drawer. An. Entire. Year. Gone.
Here's the harsh truth: you're going to blink and suddenly be two, five, ten years older. Those countries you've been dreaming about will hopefully still be there, but will you still have the energy, health, or freedom to explore them the way you want?
Your friends aren't magically going to align their schedules with yours. Your bank account will always have competing priorities. The news will never run out of scary headlines.
Meanwhile, that trip to Morocco with the camel rides through the Sahara? That cooking class in someone's home in India? That moment when you realize you're standing on top of a freaking mountain watching the sunset in Cuba? Those experiences are waiting for someone brave enough to say "yes" right now.
I hear from people all the time who worry about everything that could go wrong.
"What if there's political unrest?"
"What if the economy tanks?"
"What if something happens and I need to cancel?"
That's why travel insurance exists, people.
For real though, I've been to places during elections, protests, and economic wobbles. I've gone when friends bailed and when my bank account made me wince. I’ve traveled during and immediately following natural disasters (actually recommend it, and here’s why).
And you know what? Those trips changed me more than any "safe" vacation ever could.
I quit my stable 14-year career to start this business because life is too damn short to keep putting travel on a someday shelf. I watched my grandmother, who loved travel more than anyone I knew, run out of time before she could see all the places she'd dreamed about.
Your cubicle isn't going anywhere. The laundry will always need folding. But that Turkish wedding you might crash after a photoshoot in Cappadocia? That rooftop turtle in Marrakech waiting for strawberries? Those cultural experiences that'll reshape how you see the world? They're happening with or without you.
So buy the travel insurance. Join a group trip (hello, that's literally what I do). Or go solo if that's your jam.
But for the love of everything, stop waiting.
Because the only thing worse than uncertainty is the certainty of regret when you realize the "someday" you've been saving for never actually arrived.
Your future travel-obsessed self will thank you.
And now…a few moments from recent trips I would’ve missed out on had I decided to “wait” until things in the world settle down.
