by Scarlett Smithen
As a 16-year-old with depression, being without my phone is typically a recipe for disaster. And not for the usual, phone addict, scrolling without abandon reasons. My phone holds my music, and my music is my safety. Without my safety and comfort, I feel like there’s a hole within me, needing to be filled.
Strangely enough, travel can also fill that hole. Whether it’s the new places I go to or the new sights to see, travel can turn into my safety and comfort – which seems antithetical. Being in a new place can be anxiety-inducing and difficult. But for me, that’s not the case. Recently, I visited Japan on a cultural immersion trip with my school. I left the foggy June skies of New Jersey and embarked on an adventure to my furthest destination yet. And I had to do it without my phone. But what I realized was that the nature of traveling provided me with the capacity for peace and comfort. I didn't have to fear homesickness because I realized then and there that it’s not about the normalcy of everyday life that feels like home, but about the thrill of new adventures and memories to create.
But I know I’m not alone in this. While travel can be stressful, I know it has benefits. So I wanted to learn how exposure to different cultures positively or negatively affects mental health. Am I alone in this? Do my privileges award me a different experience than others?
Throughout my life, I’ve always struggled with anxiety. I remember crying on my very first day of Kindergarten because I didn’t want to let go of my parents. I remember crying just a few months after when I found out that I needed to get glasses because I couldn’t read. Then I remember crying on the last day of Kindergarten crying because I didn’t want to let my teacher go.
I guess I’ve always feared change, whether it’s drifting away from old friends or simply just getting older. And as I did get older, these outbursts began to worry others. There’s nothing wrong with crying, but crying nearly every week as a preteen was not normal – at least according to my family and friends. At that point I knew that this wasn’t just “crying” - this was anxiety.
I used to think that life would be so much easier if everything just stayed the way it was all the time. But that’s not life. Life is about change, about getting outside of your comfort zone, about taking risks. I can’t be scared all the time. So, when I am fearful, when I’m feeling overwhelmed, instead of turning inwards and trying to get the world to stop, I try to find ways to “escape.” Escaping can be physical or mental. And if there’s one thing I’ve always admired about escapism, it’s the idea of traveling to learn more about yourself while seeing the world.
The correlation between travel and mental health provides a valuable discussion amongst workers in the field. When discussing “escapism” and what that means in psychology, clinical psychologist from California Dr. Carla Marie Manly says in an interview with WebMD that, “escapism is generally defined as a desire or behavior to ignore, evade, or avoid reality.” In her professional opinion, escapism is an “escape” from reality and a way to cope with the obstacles in life. She adds, “When travel is motivated by a desire to escape reality, to embrace a nearly fictional experience that is free of the burdens of life…the experience becomes escapist in quality.”
The wonderful Hans Christian Anderson once remarked in his The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography (1847), “To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to gain all while you give, to roam the roads of lands remote, to travel is to live.” To travel is to go on new adventures and explore new beginnings. To live life to the fullest is to set sail on these new adventures and embrace the beauties that come with it.
The Cambridge University Press 2020 describes studies that embodied that idea of “To travel is to live.” The researchers refer to a study from the Netherlands which “explored how engaging in travel contributes positively to the mental rehabilitation of psychiatric patients. Material was collected from participant observation involving eleven travelers with severe and enduring chronic mental illness who were accompanied by four psychiatric nurses during two trips. Many positive experiences were reported, including maintenance of social contact; the opportunity to develop foreign language skills; enrichment of life resulting from enjoyment and cherishable memories; positive influence on self-esteem; and a departure from the monotonies of daily routine life.” While there is nothing wrong with routine, it is those moments that we don’t experience every day that truly make life exciting and worth living.
There is only so much learning that can be done within books or classwork. There are only so many experiences that can happen from the comfort of your home. Travel is a mechanism of growth and understanding of the greater world – but it inherently favors the upper class. If there’s one note about getting to travel frequently, it is privilege.
Knowing your privilege is the first step. Utilizing your privilege for the greater community is the next.
The fact of the matter is, travel is not something that anyone can just do at any given point. There is a privilege that comes with it, which doesn’t always get acknowledged properly. Many people are constantly toeing the line between “needs” and “wants.” Downtime is a quintessential part of living a balanced life – but unfortunately having downtime is a privilege. Life is meant to be balanced, and traveling, escaping, and taking that free time, is part of being human. Then why is it that not everyone can experience that? For one, travel can be expensive. Working-class adults without many vacation days (or any at all) have to take off from work to travel, which then adds undue financial and mental stress. The money they make is needed for basic living necessities like rent, insurance, and childcare.
Other times there are physical barriers like sickness or global conflict that prevent travel, and sometimes it’s the social barriers that keep people estranged and from getting out of their shells. As part of my work as a leader in my community, I will aim to help others get those opportunities, and fulfill their “wants” not just their needs in life.
Getting out there- out in the wonders of the world- is the path to happiness and, in my opinion, true success.
“I have to go home.” “You are home.” (Almost Famous)
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