The Privilege and the Purpose of Travel

There’s a certain arrogance that sometimes shows up in conversations about travel—the quiet assumption that those who haven’t seen the world are somehow smaller for it. That's always bothered me. It feels like a kind of blindness, a forgetting of what it costs just to survive, let alone explore.

For many people, travel isn’t about lack of curiosity. It’s about rent. About groceries. About a car payment or medical care. When you’re living month to month, even a short trip can feel impossible. There’s no shame in that reality, it’s simply the truth.

The Reality Beneath Wanderlust

Travel is a privilege. It requires money, time, safety, health, and flexibility. Even “budget travel” presumes you can afford to leave work for a while or that you have a safe place to return to. Those struggling to make ends meet often don’t have that luxury.

But there’s another truth, too: curiosity and growth are not reserved for the elite. You can live a wide life without an airplane. You can stretch your mind and heart without crossing a border.

Exploring Without Traveling

You can start exploring the world right where you are. Every town has traces of cultures and stories waiting to be seen, if you learn how to look.

• Visit immigrant-owned restaurants or international markets in your area; ask about the dishes, listen to the stories behind them.

• Borrow translated novels, memoirs, or films from your library. Let the perspectives of other lands expand your understanding of your own.

• Attend cultural or religious festivals open to the public.

• Volunteer with refugee resettlement programs or English conversation groups; you’ll meet people whose experiences span continents.

• Take short, local trips. Explore a new park, museum, or historical site within driving distance. A change of scenery doesn’t have to cross a border to widen your view.

Curiosity doesn’t require wealth, it just requires willingness and determination.

Preparing for Future Travel

Even if you can’t travel now, there are ways to prepare for when the door opens.

• Get your passport. It’s one of the simplest, most empowering documents you can own. Even if you never use it, it’s a tangible symbol of possibility and mobility.

• Learn about visas and work programs. Many countries offer short-term work exchange, study abroad, or volunteering opportunities. Programs like WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), Workaway, or HelpX can open the doors to accessing travel.

• Build skills that travel well. Language learning, remote work experience, caregiving, hospitality, teaching English, or business skills are all valuable abroad.

• Save intentionally, even if slowly. A few dollars at a time can grow into the start of an adventure or life abroad.

• Research scholarships and grants. Many universities, nonprofits, and cultural institutions fund short-term international experiences for students.

You don’t have to go tomorrow. You just have to keep the possibility alive.

When You Travel

If you are fortunate enough to travel, whether now or someday, carry humility with you. The point is not to collect countries like trophies, but to learn, to listen, and to let the experience soften your edges. Travel should not inflate the ego; it should dismantle it.

Go with respect for the people whose lands you enter. Pay attention to the cost of your presence. Support local stores and restaurants, not just global chains. Learn the customs, say thank you in their language, and tread lightly.

The Hearth and Creating a Horizon

Not everyone has a passport. Not everyone has a budget for flights or a life that allows easy mobility. But everyone deserves a horizon: something that reminds them there is more to the world than what fits inside their immediate experience.

Travel, in its truest sense, isn’t about status or escape. It’s about connection. It’s about humility and curiosity. It’s about realizing that every hearth, in every corner of the world, burns with the same light—though the culture and the land around it may look very different than your own.