Escapee

“All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality—the story of escape.”

 – Arthur Benson

Everyone needs a break once in a while. You could watch a movie. Read a book. Play golf. But to really GTFO, you need to leave the country.

Part of the appeal of overseas travel is based on the fact that wherever you’re going, it’s not going to be like where you’re coming from. We want something new, an adventure. I remember my first time abroad. We drove up to Canada and I spent my first foreign currency on a scone at Starbucks. But it was my first time seeing snow—kind of a big deal for a girl from Hawaii. No matter where you are, there are just some things you can’t experience in that place; be it weather-related, food-related, or anything else-related, there are limits to what a singular place has to offer.

The seaweed is always greener. No matter how dirty, overpriced, or sketchy a place is, you can always find something positive to take from the experience. It’s the closest we can get to walking in someone else’s shoes. In the case of travel, more is better. Though not at the price of spending quality time in a place. Which brings us to living abroad, long-term but temporary.

Though there are a lot of reasons for studying and living abroad, it can be as much about getting away as it is about getting near. But being away from things the way you’ve always known them to be—that’s not easy. I don’t know if you can really prepare for that.

So what’s the difference between an adventure and an escape? I’m picturing a Venn diagram and see a lot in the intersecting region of these two circles. What makes an adventure an adventure is the pureness of the new experience, along with a little thrill and a little danger. As for an escape, that’s all just about getting away. Away from something you can’t handle, or can’t stand. Maybe it’s that in doing one you can find the other, or they are linked in that they are on the opposite side of the spectrum from normal and everyday.

And so whatever you find it being, adventure or escape, you do it to get out: out of wherever you are physically, out of your current mindframe, and out of what you know.

I’m seeing the big triangle of a delta sign right now. Change—the more things change, the more they seem the same blah blah. I’ve always been fascinated with the Buddhist viewpoint of the I, the person, as a verb, not the same as you were ten years or ten minutes ago. It’s kind of beautiful that we’re constantly changing but also kind of sad and scary. Being alive can be really overwhelming. And at times underwhelming. There’s that change again. But I don’t want to have to achieve a zen state to be able to understand this, I just want to be at a place where I’m okay with it. And I guess I’m saying that traveling can be a step in that direction? Anyway, whatever this post is about, or whatever it ended up being about, let’s leave it at adventure and escape are in the same vein, and an important part of life. And the change that comes with that.