Experiencing new cultures is wonderful and fascinating to me and I am honored when I can be in the presence of rituals and traditions, all in words I cannot understand. My family usually eschews the lavish hotel with pools and room service to “rough it” in an Airbnb in the middle of an unexpected neighborhood. I’ll never forget chickens wandering through the streets of an adorable neighborhood I stayed in in Israel, the owners’ cat we befriended, and having to walk a way for a restaurant meal meaning that we burned a good portion of what we ate. Not everyone feels that way, however, and at a recent family gathering my cousin bragged about travelling abroad but then vowed not to “leave the resort.” Leave the resort? Leave the resort? Why not? There are resorts near where we live in NY where you can sip all the pina coladas in the world, visit spas, and gamble. Why travel halfway across the world to stay in a 3-acre spot?
More often than not, people don’t leave the resort of their lives. Everything is comfortable and predictable and seemingly under control. The food is “safe” and never surprises you, a myriad of entertainment is at your fingertips, and the drinks keep coming. You can set your clock by when each couple or family goes to the pool, make new friends who “like the same things” and get fed watered down pantomimes of another culture. Is that really the life you want? What’s the point of traveling halfway across the globe to interact with people exactly like yourself?
All that safety and security will mess you up. You’ll forget how to strive and feel the reward of a job done well.
I don’t know who needs to hear this but I’m here to tell you that that is settling. Settling for staying in your comfort zone where it’s safe, easy, and you never get yelled at. The food is always good, you only stay up late if you want to, and the people around you are predictable.
Leave the resort of your life. Get out of your comfort zone. Stop playing it safe; that’s the quickest way to just get older. You’re not getting wiser; you’re not learning anything. You’re trying to stay in one place but the reality is you’re sliding backwards as the world and the young people in it keep moving forward.
GET OFF THE RESORT! The only thing it has to offer is safety. It wouldn’t kill you to have a real pina colada made by a native at a fruit stand. It wouldn’t kill you to have street food or an unexpected home cooked meal in someone’s house. It wouldn’t kill you to wander into a living art gallery that’s in someone’s house or discover a cove with the perfect place to sit and read. Be safe of course; travel wisely, but being safe does not mean playing it safe. Playing it safe is ratcheting down your choices in the name of paving the way towards comfort and ease. Guess where that gets you? Absolutely nowhere.
