Why I Quit My Job to Travel the World
June 6, 2016 10:12 AM Subscribe
On paper, my life seemed great. I had a dream job, a swanky apartment, and a loving girlfriend. But something was off. I couldn’t bear being chained to my desk in a stuffy office any longer. So I decided to quit and travel the world, bringing only my passport, a small backpack, and... (SLNewYorker)
I was about to froth, but fortunately the article did it for me. Thanks for posting!
posted by corb at 10:17 AM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by corb at 10:17 AM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'm so excited for all the comments from people who will not read the article first.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:20 AM on June 6, 2016 [76 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 10:20 AM on June 6, 2016 [76 favorites]
Yep, I was about to say, "ANOTHER ONE?!?" but the article hit the spot.
posted by kimberussell at 10:21 AM on June 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by kimberussell at 10:21 AM on June 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
I had a feeling when I saw "SLNewYorker". This one was just a tetch too convinced of its own cleverness, but it was pretty good.
Which, I suppose, I also figured would end up being the case when I saw "SLNewYorker"...
posted by Etrigan at 10:24 AM on June 6, 2016 [6 favorites]
Which, I suppose, I also figured would end up being the case when I saw "SLNewYorker"...
posted by Etrigan at 10:24 AM on June 6, 2016 [6 favorites]
Don't worry, you can be a free spirit even without a trust fund!
posted by Johnny Assay at 10:25 AM on June 6, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by Johnny Assay at 10:25 AM on June 6, 2016 [15 favorites]
Finances aside, I just don't know why it's so difficult for everyone to believe that the outside world might actually have nothing to offer me.
posted by incomple at 10:25 AM on June 6, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by incomple at 10:25 AM on June 6, 2016 [15 favorites]
Unsure whether this is knowing self-parody or completely-blind to any form of actual insight parody?
Or perhaps it's just another volley in the ongoing New Yorker-NYT Style section war of attrition.
posted by GuyZero at 10:26 AM on June 6, 2016
Or perhaps it's just another volley in the ongoing New Yorker-NYT Style section war of attrition.
posted by GuyZero at 10:26 AM on June 6, 2016
"My first few months roaming the world were life-changing. Every day, I updated my Instagram with photos of my favorite sights: cones filled with scoops of glistening gelato; my hand lightly resting on a café table, near an early edition of “On The Road”; selfies of me hugging depressed tigers too stoned on sedatives to drown themselves."
Now I'm very sad about tourist trap tigers. STOP TREATING TIGERS LIKE GELATO.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 10:26 AM on June 6, 2016 [26 favorites]
Now I'm very sad about tourist trap tigers. STOP TREATING TIGERS LIKE GELATO.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 10:26 AM on June 6, 2016 [26 favorites]
Finances aside, I just don't know why it's so difficult for everyone to believe that the outside world might actually have nothing to offer me.
That's right. Fuck you John Donne!
posted by GuyZero at 10:26 AM on June 6, 2016 [6 favorites]
That's right. Fuck you John Donne!
posted by GuyZero at 10:26 AM on June 6, 2016 [6 favorites]
That was beautiful. I especially liked the part about meeting all those diverse people, so many British and Australian young people in hostels. I'm not sure how he can handle that much diversity.
posted by sotonohito at 10:28 AM on June 6, 2016 [18 favorites]
posted by sotonohito at 10:28 AM on June 6, 2016 [18 favorites]
Well, I'm just delighted that he was able to overcome the language barrier.
posted by math at 10:29 AM on June 6, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by math at 10:29 AM on June 6, 2016 [5 favorites]
STOP TREATING TIGERS LIKE GELATO
This needs to be the next Metafilter t-shirt.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:31 AM on June 6, 2016 [20 favorites]
This needs to be the next Metafilter t-shirt.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:31 AM on June 6, 2016 [20 favorites]
Too short and on-the-nose, but funny.
My brother has a friend who's an engineer at one of the big aerospace companies, and he used to occasionally walk into his boss's office and announce that he was taking time off, and he'd be back at some point, and then he'd hop on a train and basically hobo down through South America for a few months.
Then he'd show up back at work and get his job back, no questions asked. This was in the 70s and 80s, and I don't think he does it anymore.
posted by Huck500 at 10:32 AM on June 6, 2016 [13 favorites]
My brother has a friend who's an engineer at one of the big aerospace companies, and he used to occasionally walk into his boss's office and announce that he was taking time off, and he'd be back at some point, and then he'd hop on a train and basically hobo down through South America for a few months.
Then he'd show up back at work and get his job back, no questions asked. This was in the 70s and 80s, and I don't think he does it anymore.
posted by Huck500 at 10:32 AM on June 6, 2016 [13 favorites]
Well, I'm just delighted that he was able to overcome the language barrier.
I mean, I've had conversations with Australians where I spent most of the conversation genuinely wondering if we were speaking the same language, or even whether the languages we both spoke had a common ancestor within the past thousand years, so that rang pretty true.
posted by protocoach at 10:32 AM on June 6, 2016 [7 favorites]
I mean, I've had conversations with Australians where I spent most of the conversation genuinely wondering if we were speaking the same language, or even whether the languages we both spoke had a common ancestor within the past thousand years, so that rang pretty true.
posted by protocoach at 10:32 AM on June 6, 2016 [7 favorites]
"My wanderlust had turned me into a wanderslut."
😩👌
posted by griphus at 10:33 AM on June 6, 2016 [28 favorites]
😩👌
posted by griphus at 10:33 AM on June 6, 2016 [28 favorites]
Well, I'm just delighted that he was able to overcome the language barrier.Next week: Boston!
posted by schmod at 10:38 AM on June 6, 2016 [18 favorites]
What about everyone's friendly neighborhood? I find that a jaunt around the block reveals oft-unforeseen opportunities to travel locally. People overlook the potentials of their own town at their own peril.
posted by rebent at 10:46 AM on June 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by rebent at 10:46 AM on June 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
But do people have adventures in their own town that allow them to humblebrag?
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:48 AM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:48 AM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
Ooh, you swanky people with your "neighborhoods" and "blocks." I get all the travel I need right within my own house, and the local cats are enough wildlife for me.
posted by languagehat at 10:49 AM on June 6, 2016 [34 favorites]
posted by languagehat at 10:49 AM on June 6, 2016 [34 favorites]
Something something something Patreon. [rimshot]
posted by newdaddy at 10:50 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by newdaddy at 10:50 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
"He used to occasionally walk into his boss's office and announce that he was taking time off, and he'd be back at some point, and then he'd hop on a train and basically hobo down through South America for a few months. Then he'd show up back at work and get his job back, no questions asked. This was in the 70s and 80s."
Yeah, my boss had an in-house cocaine dealer too.
posted by Paul Slade at 10:51 AM on June 6, 2016 [82 favorites]
Yeah, my boss had an in-house cocaine dealer too.
posted by Paul Slade at 10:51 AM on June 6, 2016 [82 favorites]
and the local cats are enough wildlife for me.
Remember, el gato != gelato.
posted by Kabanos at 10:55 AM on June 6, 2016 [59 favorites]
Remember, el gato != gelato.
posted by Kabanos at 10:55 AM on June 6, 2016 [59 favorites]
STOP TREATING TIGERS LIKE GELATO
This needs to be the next Metafilter t-shirt.
Ooh, and then after the shirt has been laundered a certain number of times, the words "STOP TREATING" fade and disappear, leaving wearers with a bonus new phrase!
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:55 AM on June 6, 2016 [24 favorites]
This needs to be the next Metafilter t-shirt.
Ooh, and then after the shirt has been laundered a certain number of times, the words "STOP TREATING" fade and disappear, leaving wearers with a bonus new phrase!
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:55 AM on June 6, 2016 [24 favorites]
Fuck you John Donne
I haven't yet felt the need for an AskMe sockpuppet account, but when I do...
posted by mykescipark at 10:58 AM on June 6, 2016 [8 favorites]
I haven't yet felt the need for an AskMe sockpuppet account, but when I do...
posted by mykescipark at 10:58 AM on June 6, 2016 [8 favorites]
STOP TREATING TIGERS LIKE GELATO.
*digs fur out of teeth*
*removes tiger from waffle cone*
posted by xingcat at 10:59 AM on June 6, 2016 [19 favorites]
*digs fur out of teeth*
*removes tiger from waffle cone*
posted by xingcat at 10:59 AM on June 6, 2016 [19 favorites]
I realize this is parody but wow, shades of an ex there. Move overseas with ~$15K in bank, whine to your broke and unemployed boyfriend a month or two later that (despite having a well-paying full time job) you're out of money.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:04 AM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:04 AM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
Wait, this was parody?
wow that is a surprisingly satisfying cheap shot...
posted by From Bklyn at 11:04 AM on June 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
wow that is a surprisingly satisfying cheap shot...
posted by From Bklyn at 11:04 AM on June 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
Ooh, and then after the shirt has been laundered a certain number of times, the words "STOP TREATING" fade and disappear, leaving wearers with a bonus new phrase!
Stop Treating Tigers LIKE Gelato
Start Treating Tigers TO Gelato
Sponsored by PEFTA: People for Ethnic Frozen Treats for Animals.
posted by The Bellman at 11:10 AM on June 6, 2016 [22 favorites]
Stop Treating Tigers LIKE Gelato
Start Treating Tigers TO Gelato
Sponsored by PEFTA: People for Ethnic Frozen Treats for Animals.
posted by The Bellman at 11:10 AM on June 6, 2016 [22 favorites]
I mean, I've had conversations with Australians where I spent most of the conversation genuinely wondering if we were speaking the same language,
I almost said "No comprendo" to a drunk Liverpuldian a few weeks ago. Too many years of saying that in Mexico.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:13 AM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
I almost said "No comprendo" to a drunk Liverpuldian a few weeks ago. Too many years of saying that in Mexico.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:13 AM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
Remember, el gato != gelato.
and if we made a song about our gap year a watching a tiger eating an artisinal ice-cream coated downed tree it would be....
legato.......ogle at - el gato - eat log - gelato!
posted by lalochezia at 11:25 AM on June 6, 2016 [7 favorites]
Who shot first? (he does say he met Greebo)
posted by sammyo at 11:28 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by sammyo at 11:28 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
That's Greedo...
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:30 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:30 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
(Greebo was Nanny Ogg's cat)
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:32 AM on June 6, 2016 [14 favorites]
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:32 AM on June 6, 2016 [14 favorites]
That was beautiful. I especially liked the part about meeting all those diverse people, so many British and Australian young people in hostels. I'm not sure how he can handle that much diversity.
I snort-guffawed most ungraciously at those ones. I apparently come across as French to native English speakers and oh the number of them who went on and on and on with me about the great Canadians/Brits/Australians they had met on their world travels! So much beer and lifelong friends! Said the fresh-faced twenty-somethings who hadn't yet finished university! EXTRA POINTS for meeting Kiwis apparently.
The flip side of this is really odd because I'll overhear people talking about the hilarious American they know (i.e. me) and it's like, if I were a non-Anglo nationality... hm... yeah. I try to balance out the universe by insisting on being Oregonian since no one has any idea what that even means, I mean it's in the Midwest right? Next to Washington DC?
/has no trust fund
posted by fraula at 11:33 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
I snort-guffawed most ungraciously at those ones. I apparently come across as French to native English speakers and oh the number of them who went on and on and on with me about the great Canadians/Brits/Australians they had met on their world travels! So much beer and lifelong friends! Said the fresh-faced twenty-somethings who hadn't yet finished university! EXTRA POINTS for meeting Kiwis apparently.
The flip side of this is really odd because I'll overhear people talking about the hilarious American they know (i.e. me) and it's like, if I were a non-Anglo nationality... hm... yeah. I try to balance out the universe by insisting on being Oregonian since no one has any idea what that even means, I mean it's in the Midwest right? Next to Washington DC?
/has no trust fund
posted by fraula at 11:33 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm glad this article ended up being what it was, as I initially thought I was going to have to use up my "being slightly more irritated than normal at the internet" quota for the day.
posted by SpacemanStix at 11:35 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by SpacemanStix at 11:35 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm guessing not a few people who've read this will take it to their next cold-brew coffee class and say to their friends: 'look i read an article about your kid' and the other half will shrug and say : 'whadya gonna do?'
posted by OHenryPacey at 11:40 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by OHenryPacey at 11:40 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
Jackie Treehorn treats gelato like tigers, man.
posted by octobersurprise at 11:41 AM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by octobersurprise at 11:41 AM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
for a moment I thought this was going to start heading in more John Mcafee territory with the innocent abroad descending into Kurtz-like depravity and eventually marrying 18 local teenagers and wearing his enemies tongues on a chain around his perfectly tanned neck but maybe I got that mixed up with my Most Interesting Man In the World fanfic.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:44 AM on June 6, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:44 AM on June 6, 2016 [11 favorites]
At least it wasn't telling me how I can live the lifestyle of my dreams by doing freelance travel writing and selling ebooks to people that tell people who they can live the lifestyle of their dreams by doing freelance travel writing and selling ebooks.
posted by Damienmce at 11:57 AM on June 6, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by Damienmce at 11:57 AM on June 6, 2016 [15 favorites]
Oh yes, Gap Yah
posted by rmless at 11:41 AM on June 6 [+] [!]
"For just £1000 a month you can send a middle class kid from Surrey to India to help build a shed in a field"
posted by lalochezia at 12:06 PM on June 6, 2016 [13 favorites]
Why I Quit My Job to Become a Drug Mule
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:08 PM on June 6, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:08 PM on June 6, 2016 [9 favorites]
Your rich friend who travels all the time.
"I have so many student loans, I'm ... poor."
The impressive thing about the student loan fiasco is how quickly it gets the young strapped into a cubicle and on the road to ideal consumer. No time for reading, (low-cost) travel, discovering themselves and others, developing a philosophy, experiencing the liberation possible with alternative lifestyles. Ah, you don't need a philosophy, we've got one all ready for you: work, work, work hard, give us your life hours in return for enough money to survive. Don't work for yourself, that's a pipe dream. And maybe in 10 or 20 years you'll figure out how to have enough time to express your creativity ... if you ever really had any, or have any left. *Rubs hands together* So: how much do you need?
Of course, paying back the loans (by working hard) is only part of the cost of college. Four years of potential income (from working hard) are also lost... along with the time and experience to be certain of the "major" you (and/or parents) are about to invest in. And then, there's that mortgage: the interest will cost you three times as much as the house. Get strapped in, Bucko!
Like shoving people into a war zone before they've had time to become cynical about the motives of warriors, shoving people into deep debt creates an ideal class of wage slaves for the new century. Then, on our weekends, lets discuss how creative we'll all get once the robots take over and we've got gobs of free time to enjoy our guaranteed income. Sounds great.
posted by Twang at 12:10 PM on June 6, 2016 [12 favorites]
"I have so many student loans, I'm ... poor."
The impressive thing about the student loan fiasco is how quickly it gets the young strapped into a cubicle and on the road to ideal consumer. No time for reading, (low-cost) travel, discovering themselves and others, developing a philosophy, experiencing the liberation possible with alternative lifestyles. Ah, you don't need a philosophy, we've got one all ready for you: work, work, work hard, give us your life hours in return for enough money to survive. Don't work for yourself, that's a pipe dream. And maybe in 10 or 20 years you'll figure out how to have enough time to express your creativity ... if you ever really had any, or have any left. *Rubs hands together* So: how much do you need?
Of course, paying back the loans (by working hard) is only part of the cost of college. Four years of potential income (from working hard) are also lost... along with the time and experience to be certain of the "major" you (and/or parents) are about to invest in. And then, there's that mortgage: the interest will cost you three times as much as the house. Get strapped in, Bucko!
Like shoving people into a war zone before they've had time to become cynical about the motives of warriors, shoving people into deep debt creates an ideal class of wage slaves for the new century. Then, on our weekends, lets discuss how creative we'll all get once the robots take over and we've got gobs of free time to enjoy our guaranteed income. Sounds great.
posted by Twang at 12:10 PM on June 6, 2016 [12 favorites]
The only problem with this is that it's too true-to-life. There are people who are exactly like this, mutatis mutandis. I thought they were a bit funny at first too but the joke gets terribly old terribly quickly.
posted by clockzero at 12:20 PM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by clockzero at 12:20 PM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
In other news, people should check out the new Robin Leach show, Lifestyles Of Those Lucky Enough To Be Unburdened By Crippling Debt.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:25 PM on June 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:25 PM on June 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
whose father owns a South American rubber empire.
I just wish they hadn't led with this, because now the upper middle class whose parents are rich but not railroad-rich will think they can have a good laugh at this 1%er. They'll sit there and think, "ha, $15k in the bank! They didn't rough it like I did, with only $2k in the bank but my parent's credit card!"
posted by tofu_crouton at 12:29 PM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
I just wish they hadn't led with this, because now the upper middle class whose parents are rich but not railroad-rich will think they can have a good laugh at this 1%er. They'll sit there and think, "ha, $15k in the bank! They didn't rough it like I did, with only $2k in the bank but my parent's credit card!"
posted by tofu_crouton at 12:29 PM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
Conversely, I'm Just a Free Spirit Who Is Entirely Financially Dependent on Others.
posted by praemunire at 12:36 PM on June 6, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 12:36 PM on June 6, 2016 [9 favorites]
Now I'm very sad about tourist trap tigers. STOP TREATING TIGERS LIKE GELATO.
It's worse than you think...many of those tiger cubs offered up for hugging are, upon maturity, either killed or killed and rendered into body parts for trade.
posted by praemunire at 12:40 PM on June 6, 2016
It's worse than you think...many of those tiger cubs offered up for hugging are, upon maturity, either killed or killed and rendered into body parts for trade.
posted by praemunire at 12:40 PM on June 6, 2016
When I was WWOOFing in Italy last year I met a few people like this. Most of them were corporate types who'd saved for it, rather than trust fund kids (FWIW in over a decade of international backpacker style travel, I've never met one of these mythical people who travels because they're a rich asshole who doesn't have to work). But even as someone who is a huge advocate of long-term travel, I kind of... don't get it.
You felt like life at your shitty desk job was dragging you down because having a job sucks. Personally, my reaction to this is, indeed, to save money and periodically travel for as long as I can, as cheap as I can. But all these people seemed to be under the illusion that they were going to Find Themselves during their travels, or that they were going to go home and do something that wasn't working a shitty desk job.
posted by Sara C. at 12:43 PM on June 6, 2016 [9 favorites]
You felt like life at your shitty desk job was dragging you down because having a job sucks. Personally, my reaction to this is, indeed, to save money and periodically travel for as long as I can, as cheap as I can. But all these people seemed to be under the illusion that they were going to Find Themselves during their travels, or that they were going to go home and do something that wasn't working a shitty desk job.
posted by Sara C. at 12:43 PM on June 6, 2016 [9 favorites]
They'll sit there and think, "ha, $15k in the bank! They didn't rough it like I did, with only $2k in the bank but my parent's credit card!"
"And then I'll get a book deal to write about it, but I'll have to keep working at my well-paid, full-insurance full-time job while I write it, about which I will complain to my unemployed and self-employed friends."
I'm not bitter you're bitter.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:04 PM on June 6, 2016
"And then I'll get a book deal to write about it, but I'll have to keep working at my well-paid, full-insurance full-time job while I write it, about which I will complain to my unemployed and self-employed friends."
I'm not bitter you're bitter.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:04 PM on June 6, 2016
Sara C.: "FWIW in over a decade of international backpacker style travel, I've never met one of these mythical people who travels because they're a rich asshole who doesn't have to work"
I've met people like this over the years. I bet there are two reasons you haven't met them:
a) People who have the money generally don't do backpacker style travel. They'll stay at nice hotels/apartments or their family's pied-à-terre in Paris, and go to nice restaurants and cocktail bars. Not a backpacker scene.
b) Those who do do backpacker style travel are certainly not going to tell you they're a rich asshole who doesn't have to work -- that would ruin the whole point, since it goes against the whole backpacker ethos.
posted by crazy with stars at 1:10 PM on June 6, 2016 [12 favorites]
I've met people like this over the years. I bet there are two reasons you haven't met them:
a) People who have the money generally don't do backpacker style travel. They'll stay at nice hotels/apartments or their family's pied-à-terre in Paris, and go to nice restaurants and cocktail bars. Not a backpacker scene.
b) Those who do do backpacker style travel are certainly not going to tell you they're a rich asshole who doesn't have to work -- that would ruin the whole point, since it goes against the whole backpacker ethos.
posted by crazy with stars at 1:10 PM on June 6, 2016 [12 favorites]
These things make me feel like we need to back up a step.
"I couldn’t bear being chained to my desk in a stuffy office any longer."
Fuck you, I like having a desk job in an office cube farm. I do complicated analysis using excel and stuff for fun! The kind of work that I do is painfully boring to other people when I talk about (regulatory compliance and QA over lending activities at a big consumer bank) but I love it. I go into the office, work on stuff that I like that has a small but very real contribution in the effort to prevent another financial crisis, and then at the end of the day, I am DONE. I stop thinking and worrying about work and transition into personal time. Work stays at work. Not only that but we're a fortune 500 company so, while I have a lot of restrictions, I also have access to a TON of resources (people, software, money, infrastructure). All of the tools that I could ever need to do my job already exist and I can find them all from my desk at the office.
If you don't like desks, plenty of jobs let you work from home! I actually transitioned my position to be home-based a few years ago and it's great. I still look for excuses to go into the office though and it's not for everyone.
Don't just assume that being a "corporate drone" means that you're unhappy. I always thought that, just like everyone else, I would hate working in a cube-farm but once I started ignoring all the messages the media sends about how I'm supposed to hate my desk job, I realized that I really like it.
posted by VTX at 1:22 PM on June 6, 2016 [33 favorites]
"I couldn’t bear being chained to my desk in a stuffy office any longer."
Fuck you, I like having a desk job in an office cube farm. I do complicated analysis using excel and stuff for fun! The kind of work that I do is painfully boring to other people when I talk about (regulatory compliance and QA over lending activities at a big consumer bank) but I love it. I go into the office, work on stuff that I like that has a small but very real contribution in the effort to prevent another financial crisis, and then at the end of the day, I am DONE. I stop thinking and worrying about work and transition into personal time. Work stays at work. Not only that but we're a fortune 500 company so, while I have a lot of restrictions, I also have access to a TON of resources (people, software, money, infrastructure). All of the tools that I could ever need to do my job already exist and I can find them all from my desk at the office.
If you don't like desks, plenty of jobs let you work from home! I actually transitioned my position to be home-based a few years ago and it's great. I still look for excuses to go into the office though and it's not for everyone.
Don't just assume that being a "corporate drone" means that you're unhappy. I always thought that, just like everyone else, I would hate working in a cube-farm but once I started ignoring all the messages the media sends about how I'm supposed to hate my desk job, I realized that I really like it.
posted by VTX at 1:22 PM on June 6, 2016 [33 favorites]
i hand to god can't tell if you are riffing on the article
posted by griphus at 1:23 PM on June 6, 2016 [17 favorites]
posted by griphus at 1:23 PM on June 6, 2016 [17 favorites]
I'm not sure either. :)
The article was great and, were I more creative, I'd write a companion article making fun of the people who constantly tell others to quit being a corporate drone and do whatever (travel, start a business, be a free-lance writer, etc.).
posted by VTX at 1:32 PM on June 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
The article was great and, were I more creative, I'd write a companion article making fun of the people who constantly tell others to quit being a corporate drone and do whatever (travel, start a business, be a free-lance writer, etc.).
posted by VTX at 1:32 PM on June 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
Ironically, I just realized today that finally having a stable desk job I can deal with is finally making me relax enough to want to travel. Ten years of temping had me constantly paranoid that the job would be yanked out from under me at any moment, and so I started avoiding travel because "what if I plan this big trip somewhere and then come back and find out they're done with me in two weeks, I bet I'd have wanted that money then, huh?"
Whereas today, after a year of a stable desk job and no sign of that changing, I'm finally able to relax enough to think "okay, I THINK I can risk buying plane tickets somewhere...."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:42 PM on June 6, 2016 [20 favorites]
Whereas today, after a year of a stable desk job and no sign of that changing, I'm finally able to relax enough to think "okay, I THINK I can risk buying plane tickets somewhere...."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:42 PM on June 6, 2016 [20 favorites]
#notallcorporatedrones #yesallrichassholes
posted by cardioid at 1:45 PM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by cardioid at 1:45 PM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
Empress, it was my years of contract and freelance work that inspired me to travel, since I realized that A) I might as well be unemployed somewhere cheap, and B) it's not like the company is going to great pains to be there for me. I just always felt like there was another job somewhere else, and at least I'm lucky not to work in a field where you get dinged for "gaps on your resume".
posted by Sara C. at 1:56 PM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Sara C. at 1:56 PM on June 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
take it to their next cold-brew coffee class
Is that a thing? A thing I could teach? Because now I'm thinking about coffee making classes, where I come up with increasingly complicated and contradictory theories about the only right ways to make coffee. Part of it will certainly have to do with how you can never over roast coffee, the darker the better, and the Folger's is secretly great if you re-roast it at home and follow my confusing instructions that you of course will never be able to get correct. The students will be excited but slightly confused, and in telling their friends they will stir up the wrath of coffee aficionados who will try to bombard me with messages telling me how wrong I am. These I will ignore and they will then try to corner me in public, but I will smile patronizingly and tell them I don't have time right now and pretend to take a call. They will eventually be forced to take my class just to correct me where I will convert a few of them and replenish my stock of students. The classes will become increasingly expensive and have a waiting list. This will lead to some clickbait articles about how everyone else has been making coffee wrong all this time and I'm disrupting the coffee space, with a picture of me with my arms crossed across my professional apron, with my new twirly mustache and lavish beard that will make it hard to refute me. There will be a MetaFilter post and hundreds of hateful comments.
I'll then take my money and ditch the rat race and travel, hanging out with rich Australians at hotel bars around the world. "Is there anywhere around here I can get, you know, REAL coffee?" And then we laugh.
posted by bongo_x at 2:20 PM on June 6, 2016 [15 favorites]
Is that a thing? A thing I could teach? Because now I'm thinking about coffee making classes, where I come up with increasingly complicated and contradictory theories about the only right ways to make coffee. Part of it will certainly have to do with how you can never over roast coffee, the darker the better, and the Folger's is secretly great if you re-roast it at home and follow my confusing instructions that you of course will never be able to get correct. The students will be excited but slightly confused, and in telling their friends they will stir up the wrath of coffee aficionados who will try to bombard me with messages telling me how wrong I am. These I will ignore and they will then try to corner me in public, but I will smile patronizingly and tell them I don't have time right now and pretend to take a call. They will eventually be forced to take my class just to correct me where I will convert a few of them and replenish my stock of students. The classes will become increasingly expensive and have a waiting list. This will lead to some clickbait articles about how everyone else has been making coffee wrong all this time and I'm disrupting the coffee space, with a picture of me with my arms crossed across my professional apron, with my new twirly mustache and lavish beard that will make it hard to refute me. There will be a MetaFilter post and hundreds of hateful comments.
I'll then take my money and ditch the rat race and travel, hanging out with rich Australians at hotel bars around the world. "Is there anywhere around here I can get, you know, REAL coffee?" And then we laugh.
posted by bongo_x at 2:20 PM on June 6, 2016 [15 favorites]
I've heard of cuppings, but I've never heard of classes.
Personally I thought it was a typo or auto-correct for "coffee klatsch"
posted by Sara C. at 2:38 PM on June 6, 2016
Personally I thought it was a typo or auto-correct for "coffee klatsch"
posted by Sara C. at 2:38 PM on June 6, 2016
"But I don’t expect everyone to “get” me. I’m a free spirit, whose father owns a South American rubber empire."
Hit me square in the funny bone. Good stuff.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 3:06 PM on June 6, 2016
Hit me square in the funny bone. Good stuff.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 3:06 PM on June 6, 2016
There's absolutely coffee-making classes. I always assumed it was for the people that never had the character-building experience of working in coffee shops growing up, to pay approx. 1/3 of their cost of living.
posted by destructive cactus at 3:10 PM on June 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by destructive cactus at 3:10 PM on June 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
Is it all about latte art or something? I just can't fathom how you could string more than maybe a 3-hour workshop out of coffee making? And I make some fancy coffee, used to be a barista, etc.
posted by Sara C. at 4:25 PM on June 6, 2016
posted by Sara C. at 4:25 PM on June 6, 2016
-invention of coffee as drink: 2 hours
-type of bean: 1 hour
-origin of bean: 8 hours
-roast level (effect on flavor and caffeine): 2 hours
-learn to roast: 6 hours
-grind methods: 1 hour
-hot brewing methods: espresso machine, 4 hours; moka pot, 2 hours; aeropress, 1 hour; french press, 1 hour; siphon, 2 hours; pour over, 2 hours; percolator, 1 hour; drip, 30 seconds
-lecture on bleached vs. unbleached paper filters: 1 hour
-cold brewing: 48 hour lock-in
Available over 20 weeks, punctuated by three weekend seminars (bean origin, learn to roast, and cold brewing). If successful in this course, one may obtain the syllabus to the milk course and/or the tea course.
posted by Night_owl at 6:06 PM on June 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
"But all these people seemed to be under the illusion that they were going to Find Themselves during their travels, or that they were going to go home and do something that wasn't working a shitty desk job."
Hah, I've been to some talks where they were going on about "Transformative Travel" and how they did find themselves and then came home and figured out a job they actually did want to do. It'd almost sell me except (a) I don't have that much money, (b) I'm not that good at traveling or flying by the seat of my pants or foreign languages, and (c) a girl's gotta have some health insurance and go to the dentist sometime.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:19 PM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
Hah, I've been to some talks where they were going on about "Transformative Travel" and how they did find themselves and then came home and figured out a job they actually did want to do. It'd almost sell me except (a) I don't have that much money, (b) I'm not that good at traveling or flying by the seat of my pants or foreign languages, and (c) a girl's gotta have some health insurance and go to the dentist sometime.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:19 PM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
For those of you who were wondering about coffee classes, they are a thing.
I found myself through travel, but then I accidentally left myself under a table at a Starbucks. :( Damn you, Starbucks, with your free wifi and toilets.
posted by betweenthebars at 6:55 PM on June 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
I found myself through travel, but then I accidentally left myself under a table at a Starbucks. :( Damn you, Starbucks, with your free wifi and toilets.
posted by betweenthebars at 6:55 PM on June 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
I'm going to Montreal in a couple of months, I'm going to totally instagram some coffees and poutine and somehow get on a roof. And try to understand those wacky Canadians!
posted by numaner at 7:03 PM on June 6, 2016
posted by numaner at 7:03 PM on June 6, 2016
with my new twirly mustache and lavish beard that will make it hard to refute me
I know this is not exactly a groundbreaking joke, but this precise expression of it tickled my funnybone.
posted by praemunire at 7:41 PM on June 6, 2016
I know this is not exactly a groundbreaking joke, but this precise expression of it tickled my funnybone.
posted by praemunire at 7:41 PM on June 6, 2016
"FWIW in over a decade of international backpacker style travel, I've never met one of these mythical people who travels because they're a rich asshole who doesn't have to work"
I've met plenty, though they mostly weren't assholes, just richer than I am. In my experience people don't usually trumpet their wealth, it shows up in smaller ways like mentioning the boarding school you went to in Switzerland, or you just add up the lifestyle pieces and notice the ways things don't quite fit.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:47 PM on June 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
I've met plenty, though they mostly weren't assholes, just richer than I am. In my experience people don't usually trumpet their wealth, it shows up in smaller ways like mentioning the boarding school you went to in Switzerland, or you just add up the lifestyle pieces and notice the ways things don't quite fit.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:47 PM on June 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
. I've met plenty, though they mostly weren't assholes, just richer than I am. In my experience people don't usually trumpet their wealth, it shows up in smaller ways like mentioning the boarding school you went to in Switzerland, or you just add up the lifestyle pieces and notice the ways things don't quite fit.
Like in the time between you became Facebook friends with that backpacker you met in Peru two years ago, he has managed to spend six months each in India and Australia, visited a girl who stayed in your hostel who lives in South Africa, and roadtripped across the US for a summer, but never seems to talk about his new job or looking for an affordable apartment anywhere.
posted by geegollygosh at 7:58 PM on June 6, 2016 [8 favorites]
Like in the time between you became Facebook friends with that backpacker you met in Peru two years ago, he has managed to spend six months each in India and Australia, visited a girl who stayed in your hostel who lives in South Africa, and roadtripped across the US for a summer, but never seems to talk about his new job or looking for an affordable apartment anywhere.
posted by geegollygosh at 7:58 PM on June 6, 2016 [8 favorites]
The impressive thing about the student loan fiasco is how quickly it gets the young strapped into a cubicle and on the road to ideal consumer.
There's a really interesting parallel here that I wish I could remember properly. As far as I can recall, some colonial powers imposed taxes that had to be paid in money, not goods etc as this forced indigenous people to stop living a subsistence farming lifestyle, and move over to cash crops. This meant that the colonial power extracted more value from them, whilst making the locals reliant on the colony for food etc, so they could be controlled more easily.
I can't remember when or where this happened, or find where I read about it though, sorry!
posted by Ned G at 2:28 AM on June 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
There's a really interesting parallel here that I wish I could remember properly. As far as I can recall, some colonial powers imposed taxes that had to be paid in money, not goods etc as this forced indigenous people to stop living a subsistence farming lifestyle, and move over to cash crops. This meant that the colonial power extracted more value from them, whilst making the locals reliant on the colony for food etc, so they could be controlled more easily.
I can't remember when or where this happened, or find where I read about it though, sorry!
posted by Ned G at 2:28 AM on June 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
Tesco, one of the big UK supermarkets, has the slogan "Every little helps" printed on all its reusable shopping bags. I think it was the comedian Sara Pascoe who recently said on the radio that she'd kept re-using one of these bags long enough to find the first character of this slogan had worn away. That left her bag issuing a quintessentially British sigh of despair. "Very little helps," it declared.
posted by Paul Slade at 5:37 AM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Paul Slade at 5:37 AM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
(I should have added that the Tesco story was prompted by Greg_Ace's comment above.) And now I've missed the edit window.
posted by Paul Slade at 6:33 AM on June 7, 2016
posted by Paul Slade at 6:33 AM on June 7, 2016
You're only supposed to use the edit window to fix typos and stuff, don't worry.
posted by LogicalDash at 6:40 AM on June 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by LogicalDash at 6:40 AM on June 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
Ned G, that was common in the spice colonies, as I recall.
posted by clew at 10:07 AM on June 7, 2016
posted by clew at 10:07 AM on June 7, 2016
he has managed to spend six months each in India and Australia
It's worth noting that Australia is one of the few countries that offers Working Holiday Visas to Americans. If you're under 30, you can legally work in Australia for a year (possibly 2?) without becoming a permanent resident. I believe people from other Commonwealth countries can also travel, live, and work freely in Australia, though I'm less clear on this.
So it's incredibly possible to be a normal person and spend 6 months waiting tables in Australia, save your tips, and parlay that into 6 months in India. Especially since the India backpacker trail is unbelievably cheap. I spent the 2008 WGA strike in India and spent maybe a quarter of my monthly NYC unskilled admin assistant income living the high life, traveling all over the country, buying cool handicrafts, ingesting unmentionable substances, etc. This becomes infinitely easier if your flight to India was cheap (as it would be from Australia).
I've met a lot of people traveling who lived this way. A Fulbright or studying abroad in Country X, a year on the Australian Working Holiday visa tip, six months in a very cheap country, trips to visit people you already know in additional countries, culminating in an EFL certificate and another few years working somewhere in Asia. You can't sustain it forever, but you can probably stash away a good chunk of your early/mid 20s doing this without being from a wealthy background or on a trust fund.
These usually aren't the people who claim they "quit their boring office job to travel", though. Because they never had a boring office job in the first place.
posted by Sara C. at 10:24 AM on June 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
It's worth noting that Australia is one of the few countries that offers Working Holiday Visas to Americans. If you're under 30, you can legally work in Australia for a year (possibly 2?) without becoming a permanent resident. I believe people from other Commonwealth countries can also travel, live, and work freely in Australia, though I'm less clear on this.
So it's incredibly possible to be a normal person and spend 6 months waiting tables in Australia, save your tips, and parlay that into 6 months in India. Especially since the India backpacker trail is unbelievably cheap. I spent the 2008 WGA strike in India and spent maybe a quarter of my monthly NYC unskilled admin assistant income living the high life, traveling all over the country, buying cool handicrafts, ingesting unmentionable substances, etc. This becomes infinitely easier if your flight to India was cheap (as it would be from Australia).
I've met a lot of people traveling who lived this way. A Fulbright or studying abroad in Country X, a year on the Australian Working Holiday visa tip, six months in a very cheap country, trips to visit people you already know in additional countries, culminating in an EFL certificate and another few years working somewhere in Asia. You can't sustain it forever, but you can probably stash away a good chunk of your early/mid 20s doing this without being from a wealthy background or on a trust fund.
These usually aren't the people who claim they "quit their boring office job to travel", though. Because they never had a boring office job in the first place.
posted by Sara C. at 10:24 AM on June 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
That is a really good point. In my experience it shows up in the details: are you waitressing in a cafe to save money for the next leg, or are you flying to go trekking one week, and the next week scuba diving off of a live-aboard boat? Just knowing someone traveled doesn't tell you all that much.
posted by Dip Flash at 11:18 AM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Dip Flash at 11:18 AM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
So it's incredibly possible to be a normal person and spend 6 months waiting tables in Australia, save your tips, and parlay that into 6 months in India. Especially since the India backpacker trail is unbelievably cheap. I spent the 2008 WGA strike in India and spent maybe a quarter of my monthly NYC unskilled admin assistant income living the high life, traveling all over the country, buying cool handicrafts, ingesting unmentionable substances, etc. This becomes infinitely easier if your flight to India was cheap (as it would be from Australia).
I'm still seeing a lot of "ifs" in that paragraph...
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:32 AM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm still seeing a lot of "ifs" in that paragraph...
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:32 AM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
The only if is choosing cheap destinations with good airfares.
posted by Sara C. at 11:53 AM on June 7, 2016
posted by Sara C. at 11:53 AM on June 7, 2016
Lot of hidden "ifs" in "be a normal person", frankly.
What is it about travel that brings out the "No, it's not really about privilege, it's about trying real hard!" arguments?
posted by Etrigan at 12:19 PM on June 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
What is it about travel that brings out the "No, it's not really about privilege, it's about trying real hard!" arguments?
posted by Etrigan at 12:19 PM on June 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
The only if is choosing cheap destinations with good airfares.
And that particular "if" assumes that you have a job that allows you to take time off, and pays you well enough that "a cheap destination with good airfare" is further away than the next county.
As for the Australia work visa - it's not a given, either. And I submit as Exhibit A - my brother and sister-in-law, who applied for one such visa during part of a round-the-world trip. They did not discover until they arrived in Australia that their bid had been rejected, leaving them stranded. The only way they could make money was to become migrant farmers, paid under the table, on a mango farm in the outback; they worked for three weeks (during which they also both discovered that they had contact allergies to mangoes), until they had just enough to pay for the cheapest possible boat to New Zealand, and then fled.
Again - there were more "ifs" in that claim than you perhaps imagined.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:53 PM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
And that particular "if" assumes that you have a job that allows you to take time off, and pays you well enough that "a cheap destination with good airfare" is further away than the next county.
As for the Australia work visa - it's not a given, either. And I submit as Exhibit A - my brother and sister-in-law, who applied for one such visa during part of a round-the-world trip. They did not discover until they arrived in Australia that their bid had been rejected, leaving them stranded. The only way they could make money was to become migrant farmers, paid under the table, on a mango farm in the outback; they worked for three weeks (during which they also both discovered that they had contact allergies to mangoes), until they had just enough to pay for the cheapest possible boat to New Zealand, and then fled.
Again - there were more "ifs" in that claim than you perhaps imagined.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:53 PM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Look, Empress, if you hate traveling, cool, stay home, no skin off my teeth.
But yes, long term international travel is a thing people do. People who are not fabulously wealthy. It tends to be a thing you have to make the choice to do, and it doesn't always work out, and it isn't typically a sustainable thing. (Even people I know who did this for years eventually come home and get a more stable living situation.) And it requires a style of travel that a lot of people just don't enjoy. This is all fine. But I don't really get the approach of pretending you have to be a trust funder in order to travel, when that's just not the case at all.
posted by Sara C. at 4:16 PM on June 7, 2016 [6 favorites]
But yes, long term international travel is a thing people do. People who are not fabulously wealthy. It tends to be a thing you have to make the choice to do, and it doesn't always work out, and it isn't typically a sustainable thing. (Even people I know who did this for years eventually come home and get a more stable living situation.) And it requires a style of travel that a lot of people just don't enjoy. This is all fine. But I don't really get the approach of pretending you have to be a trust funder in order to travel, when that's just not the case at all.
posted by Sara C. at 4:16 PM on June 7, 2016 [6 favorites]
I believe people from other Commonwealth countries can also travel, live, and work freely in Australia, though I'm less clear on this.
I wish. If you're from a Commonwealth country that's predominantly POC, it's like hell on Earth trying to get a visa sometimes. On a Bangladesh passport my student visa took 3 months LONGER than usual because of extra pre-visa paperwork. When I applied for PR my bridging visa technically allowed me to travel/live/work freely, but no one would hire me for more than say casual hours.
Colonization! And the only perk is that you get to be part of a 4-yearly major games event!
posted by divabat at 5:13 PM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
I wish. If you're from a Commonwealth country that's predominantly POC, it's like hell on Earth trying to get a visa sometimes. On a Bangladesh passport my student visa took 3 months LONGER than usual because of extra pre-visa paperwork. When I applied for PR my bridging visa technically allowed me to travel/live/work freely, but no one would hire me for more than say casual hours.
Colonization! And the only perk is that you get to be part of a 4-yearly major games event!
posted by divabat at 5:13 PM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Sara - on the contrary, I love travel. I would love to be doing even more of it.
What I DON'T like, though, is when people insist that it is "not that hard" to travel, without realizing that they are speaking from a position of having way more privilege than they realize -
1. You say that you went to Australia while the WGA was on strike. Not everyone works in an industry where if there is a strike where they work, they are a) able to leave town during the strike instead of being drafted to help out on the factory floor or b) able to afford rent while the strike is going on.
2. You casually assume that the Australian visa plan is something people can just do, instead of understanding that there are people, like my brother, for who it isn't that easy.
3. You blithely mention that people "just need to pick a cheap airfare" without realizing that there are people for whom ANY airfare is a major expense. Hell, last winter the $200 train ticket and Airbnb I spent on a weekend in Philadelphia was enough to nearly make me late on the phone bill.
In short - it isn't travel I dislike. What I dislike - no, what I HATE - are the people who claim that affording frequent travel is "easy", and imply the reason I haven't done more is because I just don't want it bad enough.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:32 PM on June 7, 2016 [7 favorites]
What I DON'T like, though, is when people insist that it is "not that hard" to travel, without realizing that they are speaking from a position of having way more privilege than they realize -
1. You say that you went to Australia while the WGA was on strike. Not everyone works in an industry where if there is a strike where they work, they are a) able to leave town during the strike instead of being drafted to help out on the factory floor or b) able to afford rent while the strike is going on.
2. You casually assume that the Australian visa plan is something people can just do, instead of understanding that there are people, like my brother, for who it isn't that easy.
3. You blithely mention that people "just need to pick a cheap airfare" without realizing that there are people for whom ANY airfare is a major expense. Hell, last winter the $200 train ticket and Airbnb I spent on a weekend in Philadelphia was enough to nearly make me late on the phone bill.
In short - it isn't travel I dislike. What I dislike - no, what I HATE - are the people who claim that affording frequent travel is "easy", and imply the reason I haven't done more is because I just don't want it bad enough.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:32 PM on June 7, 2016 [7 favorites]
> they had just enough to pay for the cheapest possible boat to New Zealand
How long ago was this? :)
IMAO they should have just hired a car and driven across the bridge.
{/}
posted by Autumn Leaf at 5:49 PM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
How long ago was this? :)
IMAO they should have just hired a car and driven across the bridge.
{/}
posted by Autumn Leaf at 5:49 PM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
1. I went to India, not Australia. You're right that not everyone works in field x, but that's not really how privilege works? I also sometimes feel sad that, because I don't work in a field that grants paid vacation days, I'll probably never get to take one of those cushy all-inclusive 6 days/7nights resort vacations. In fact, right now I'm in the worst of all possible worlds, a permanent job with no fixed end point which *also* doesn't grant vacation time at all. Everyone always has some privileges over others based on their particular life specifics. So what? International travel is still not that expensive compared to common middle class expenses like late model cars, lawn care, season passes to Disney, etc.
2. The Australian visa plan *is* something people can just do. Of course the country of Australia has the right to not grant the visa. That's how life works. But it's a quite accessible thing that people definitely do. It's not made up. I have met multiple people who did this. None of them were mega-rich or anything.
3. I didn't say that international travel was so cheap that anyone, even the poorest person, could easily do it. However, yeah, there are good deals out there if you live in a major coastal city or international air hub like Houston or Chicago*. A friend of mine who waits tables for a living just bought tickets to Japan for $400 round trip. That's less than I'm spending to be a bridesmaid in a wedding later this year. That's less than some people I know spend on Christmas presents or manicures or golf.
The bottom line is, if you want to travel, and you're in even the very lowest reaches of the middle class, and you know how to use a search engine, you can probably travel internationally if you're willing to prioritize it. You probably can't live a luxurious jet-setter lifestyle indefinitely, but yeah if you're willing to take a red eye and go in the off season and eat street food and sleep in a hostel, you can probably travel.
*And, yes, I'm aware that not literally every single person in the entire US does. But a lot do. Most do, depending on how exactly you reckon "major coastal city".
posted by Sara C. at 5:50 PM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
2. The Australian visa plan *is* something people can just do. Of course the country of Australia has the right to not grant the visa. That's how life works. But it's a quite accessible thing that people definitely do. It's not made up. I have met multiple people who did this. None of them were mega-rich or anything.
3. I didn't say that international travel was so cheap that anyone, even the poorest person, could easily do it. However, yeah, there are good deals out there if you live in a major coastal city or international air hub like Houston or Chicago*. A friend of mine who waits tables for a living just bought tickets to Japan for $400 round trip. That's less than I'm spending to be a bridesmaid in a wedding later this year. That's less than some people I know spend on Christmas presents or manicures or golf.
The bottom line is, if you want to travel, and you're in even the very lowest reaches of the middle class, and you know how to use a search engine, you can probably travel internationally if you're willing to prioritize it. You probably can't live a luxurious jet-setter lifestyle indefinitely, but yeah if you're willing to take a red eye and go in the off season and eat street food and sleep in a hostel, you can probably travel.
*And, yes, I'm aware that not literally every single person in the entire US does. But a lot do. Most do, depending on how exactly you reckon "major coastal city".
posted by Sara C. at 5:50 PM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
....I'd take this to Memail if I thought it'd do any good. But it won't, so I'll just come back in a year and ask how much you've traveled in that job without any paid vacation time if all you need to do it is "prioritize it".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:58 PM on June 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:58 PM on June 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
(Missed the edit window, but - I do know that there are cargo ships that take passengers from Australia to NZ. But TTBOMK the cheapest possible boat is absurdly expensive when compared to readily available sub-$200 trans-Tasman airfares.)
posted by Autumn Leaf at 6:00 PM on June 7, 2016
posted by Autumn Leaf at 6:00 PM on June 7, 2016
I mean, so, I'm planning a wedding right now, and I'm ducking in and out of wedding blogs, forums, subreddits, etc. Most of the weddings I'm reading about are costing 10 times what my two month trip to India cost. For, like, table numbers and aisle runners and matching bridesmaid kimonos and shit.
posted by Sara C. at 6:00 PM on June 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Sara C. at 6:00 PM on June 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
So no time off even for your wedding? Just a whirlwind of a weekend and back to work? Although, I know that is pretty common. And if there is a honeymoon people can wait and take that later on.
posted by futz at 6:51 PM on June 7, 2016
posted by futz at 6:51 PM on June 7, 2016
I'm going to have to take unpaid time off unless my career prospects are substantially different next spring.
posted by Sara C. at 7:01 PM on June 7, 2016
posted by Sara C. at 7:01 PM on June 7, 2016
2. The Australian visa plan *is* something people can just do. Of course the country of Australia has the right to not grant the visa. That's how life works. But it's a quite accessible thing that people definitely do. It's not made up. I have met multiple people who did this. None of them were mega-rich or anything.
*cries forever*
For all the crap the US gets about visas, it was still a hell of a lot easier than Australia even on a bloody Bangladesh passport.
posted by divabat at 7:39 PM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
*cries forever*
For all the crap the US gets about visas, it was still a hell of a lot easier than Australia even on a bloody Bangladesh passport.
posted by divabat at 7:39 PM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Oh, tut tut divabat, "that's how life works"...
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:43 PM on June 7, 2016
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:43 PM on June 7, 2016
(The US H1B is unnecessarily complicated, but at least it's not as discriminatory towards particular occupations as the Australian equivalents are, and people with my background have had luck on "special talent" visas. If I had waited even 6 months to apply for Aussie PR I wouldn't be eligible at all because my entire industry got erased from the "skills list" (which only takes into account your degree and not any experience). My industrial-design friend wasn't as lucky - she had to wait 10 years to get her PR, on a partner visa. And she's from Norway, a "low-risk" country.)
posted by divabat at 7:45 PM on June 7, 2016
posted by divabat at 7:45 PM on June 7, 2016
The link was highly amusing.
But I'm always baffled at why people on MF show such hostility toward those of us who do choose to leave our offices and live on the road.
Is it just because of the privilege factor? Yes, we are privileged in many many ways, but so are our friends who live more conventional lives. Why the hate?
(FWIW My wife and I do freelance to earn a living. We live on much less per day when out of the States than when we are "home", and much less per year than most of our friends in D.C. We aim for about $40000 a year and are lucky enough to have retirement-provided healthcare.)
posted by mkuhnell at 1:22 AM on June 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
But I'm always baffled at why people on MF show such hostility toward those of us who do choose to leave our offices and live on the road.
Is it just because of the privilege factor? Yes, we are privileged in many many ways, but so are our friends who live more conventional lives. Why the hate?
(FWIW My wife and I do freelance to earn a living. We live on much less per day when out of the States than when we are "home", and much less per year than most of our friends in D.C. We aim for about $40000 a year and are lucky enough to have retirement-provided healthcare.)
posted by mkuhnell at 1:22 AM on June 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
I think most, if not all, of the "hostility" is aimed at people who insist that no, really, anyone can do it, you just have to try harder. Kind of like how MetaFilter is kind of "hostile" toward people who insist that weight loss is as simple as eating less food because of physics.
posted by Etrigan at 3:47 AM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Etrigan at 3:47 AM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
Is it just because of the privilege factor? Yes, we are privileged in many many ways, but so are our friends who live more conventional lives. Why the hate?
It is because of the KIND of privilege those who can travel frequently enjoy, and because so many fucking articles exist which that urge those of us who do not enjoy those SPECIFIC privileges to join you, and which imply that if we don't that we must simply not "want it" enough or that we are spoiled consumer ninnies who are too addicted to nice cars or season passes to sports events or something.
Such articles do not take into account that many people who may be living middle-class lives on the surface may be working in a job with a piss-poor vacation package, or may be forced to say home and care for an ailing family member, or may be in too much debt, etc., etc., etc. or may simply be in a job that will not allow for telecommuting.
So yes, it is because of "the privilege thing" because these articles seem to be written by people who are especially blinkered about their own.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:53 AM on June 8, 2016 [7 favorites]
It is because of the KIND of privilege those who can travel frequently enjoy, and because so many fucking articles exist which that urge those of us who do not enjoy those SPECIFIC privileges to join you, and which imply that if we don't that we must simply not "want it" enough or that we are spoiled consumer ninnies who are too addicted to nice cars or season passes to sports events or something.
Such articles do not take into account that many people who may be living middle-class lives on the surface may be working in a job with a piss-poor vacation package, or may be forced to say home and care for an ailing family member, or may be in too much debt, etc., etc., etc. or may simply be in a job that will not allow for telecommuting.
So yes, it is because of "the privilege thing" because these articles seem to be written by people who are especially blinkered about their own.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:53 AM on June 8, 2016 [7 favorites]
So yes, it is because of "the privilege thing" because these articles seem to be written by people who are especially blinkered about their own.
There is a tone-deafness to a lot of the articles (as well as more than a few of the comments in FPPs here on the subject, and I should probably include myself in that). But there's also conflation in some of the pushback to that tone-deafness, where the person who has enough privilege to travel (such as health, not supporting family, etc) but has to make big sacrifices to do so or do things like tend bar under the table, gets lumped in with the trustifarians who can float freely from Burning Man to Kerala to Machu Picchu. They are both traveling, but they are not equally privileged and they are having very different experiences.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:27 AM on June 8, 2016 [5 favorites]
There is a tone-deafness to a lot of the articles (as well as more than a few of the comments in FPPs here on the subject, and I should probably include myself in that). But there's also conflation in some of the pushback to that tone-deafness, where the person who has enough privilege to travel (such as health, not supporting family, etc) but has to make big sacrifices to do so or do things like tend bar under the table, gets lumped in with the trustifarians who can float freely from Burning Man to Kerala to Machu Picchu. They are both traveling, but they are not equally privileged and they are having very different experiences.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:27 AM on June 8, 2016 [5 favorites]
Another reason is that people who don't travel are often shamed. Some of these "everyone can and should travel" articles treat those who don't as purposefully ignorant or bigoted, conflating purposeful monolingualism with a lack of privilege.
posted by tofu_crouton at 8:19 AM on June 8, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by tofu_crouton at 8:19 AM on June 8, 2016 [5 favorites]
Those answers make sense. The defensiveness and hostility that I felt here on this issue just surprised me.
I think many of us are just trying to show our friends and relatives that it isn't quite as expensive and hard to travel as they think it is (often based on exorbitant tour pricing), that we have made decisions and sacrifices to do this (and aren't just filthy rich), and that travel can be eye-opening in many ways. My own site is mostly so my friends and family can follow along and do some armchair travel, which they enjoy but I know many would not.
posted by mkuhnell at 8:16 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think many of us are just trying to show our friends and relatives that it isn't quite as expensive and hard to travel as they think it is (often based on exorbitant tour pricing), that we have made decisions and sacrifices to do this (and aren't just filthy rich), and that travel can be eye-opening in many ways. My own site is mostly so my friends and family can follow along and do some armchair travel, which they enjoy but I know many would not.
posted by mkuhnell at 8:16 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
Mkuhnell, the problem is that for many people, even telling them that it "isn't hard" on the one hand, but then on the other saying "you just have to make some sacrifices," can be cruel, because there is nothing TO sacrifice. I'm sure that when you think of financial sacrifice you're talking about giving up things like remodeling the house or a new car or something - but for many, there isn't any luxury like that TO sacrifice. "financial sacrifice" means giving up your job ITSELF. I mean, hell, we just had an FPP recently about how a majority of the middle class can't easily put their hands on $400 if they needed it for an emergency. So reading a comment in here about how a trip to Japan cost someone "only" $400 rings pretty blinkered, yeah - if you can't get that much together for an emergency car repair, why would you spend that on something everyone you work with sees as ephemeral?
Up thread I said that it is only just now that I have the ability to travel again. That is after a period of TEN YEARS as a temp, during which I had NO sick time, NO paid holidays, and only FIVE DAYS of paid vacation time each year, which by the time I got them had to be split up to reimburse myself for a couple sick days and a visit to a relative, and where the hell are you going to go for only two days, especially when you're barely keeping afloat because you're a TEMP for God's sake, and it is the only work you can get in the wake of the Recession....
The real enemy here, of course, is this country's piss-poor attitude about labor and leisure, and it's lack of federal laws enforcing mandatory time off. when it comes to the ability to travel, there are definitely those who have the resources and those who do not. It isn't something for the ultra-rich alone, you're right, but there are indeed a hell of a lot more people who ARE too poor in either time or money than the "Just travel" articles seem to acknowledge.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:02 PM on June 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
Up thread I said that it is only just now that I have the ability to travel again. That is after a period of TEN YEARS as a temp, during which I had NO sick time, NO paid holidays, and only FIVE DAYS of paid vacation time each year, which by the time I got them had to be split up to reimburse myself for a couple sick days and a visit to a relative, and where the hell are you going to go for only two days, especially when you're barely keeping afloat because you're a TEMP for God's sake, and it is the only work you can get in the wake of the Recession....
The real enemy here, of course, is this country's piss-poor attitude about labor and leisure, and it's lack of federal laws enforcing mandatory time off. when it comes to the ability to travel, there are definitely those who have the resources and those who do not. It isn't something for the ultra-rich alone, you're right, but there are indeed a hell of a lot more people who ARE too poor in either time or money than the "Just travel" articles seem to acknowledge.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:02 PM on June 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
On the one hand, I have the vacation time (technically). On the other hand, I really don't have super lots of disposable income this year, plus my mom is having surgery and I'm moving and I already had surgery I'm gonna be paying off all year.
I've had people lecture me about how travel is affordable if you make sacrifices, but the way my life goes, I'd rather spend money on a book I can enjoy now (or whatever else I can get for instant gratification) rather than save for a trip that might not happen in a year because oh, someone needs surgery or something else crappy happens. Between that and my general cluelessness at travel outside of my range of experience (and sorry, but hoo boy do I not want to go on a tour where I don't get to pick where I go and am stuck with the same bozos 18 hours a day), I've accepted that I'm never leaving North America. I will consider myself lucky if I can travel to another state again in 2017. Transformative travel sound amazing and like something I probably totally need, but.... life has never really arranged itself in such a way that I can do that. I couldn't do foreign exchange in college due to a sick relative, and life only gets harder from here on in. So oh well.
tldr: Some of us who can't do travel get tired of being taunted about what we can't do.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:50 PM on June 8, 2016
I've had people lecture me about how travel is affordable if you make sacrifices, but the way my life goes, I'd rather spend money on a book I can enjoy now (or whatever else I can get for instant gratification) rather than save for a trip that might not happen in a year because oh, someone needs surgery or something else crappy happens. Between that and my general cluelessness at travel outside of my range of experience (and sorry, but hoo boy do I not want to go on a tour where I don't get to pick where I go and am stuck with the same bozos 18 hours a day), I've accepted that I'm never leaving North America. I will consider myself lucky if I can travel to another state again in 2017. Transformative travel sound amazing and like something I probably totally need, but.... life has never really arranged itself in such a way that I can do that. I couldn't do foreign exchange in college due to a sick relative, and life only gets harder from here on in. So oh well.
tldr: Some of us who can't do travel get tired of being taunted about what we can't do.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:50 PM on June 8, 2016
he person who has enough privilege to travel (such as health, not supporting family, etc) but has to make big sacrifices to do so or do things like tend bar under the table, gets lumped in with the trustifarians who can float freely from Burning Man to Kerala to Machu Picchu. They are both traveling, but they are not equally privileged and they are having very different experiences.
Right, but they both have a lot of privilege, and it's the tendency of the former group to effectively communicate "hey look, we're not like those super rich and we can do it, it's totally accessible!" while not recognising that they still have a lot of privilege and that it is accessible To them does not mean it is accessible full stop. Basically part of the issue is context - travel has been compared to typical muddle class goods and expenses to prove that it isn't that expensive, but all of those things are that expensive. You don't look super-privileged when you compare yourself to people with a greater or similar level of privilege.
Incidentally, the $400 figure that's been thrown about roughly represents the entire sum of my income and earnings in any way this year so far. It does not look likely to change in the immediate future.
posted by Dysk at 4:54 AM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Right, but they both have a lot of privilege, and it's the tendency of the former group to effectively communicate "hey look, we're not like those super rich and we can do it, it's totally accessible!" while not recognising that they still have a lot of privilege and that it is accessible To them does not mean it is accessible full stop. Basically part of the issue is context - travel has been compared to typical muddle class goods and expenses to prove that it isn't that expensive, but all of those things are that expensive. You don't look super-privileged when you compare yourself to people with a greater or similar level of privilege.
Incidentally, the $400 figure that's been thrown about roughly represents the entire sum of my income and earnings in any way this year so far. It does not look likely to change in the immediate future.
posted by Dysk at 4:54 AM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think personally, the reason I deeply resent the "Just travel! Quit your job and travel, you can do it!" people, is that those people often try to influence other people who cannot, in any way, afford to do so without causing massive suffering and heartbreak for their family members.
A couple 'friends' have responded to my husband's talking about frustration in his job by saying "Quit your job and hike the Appalachian Trail!" I kid you not. And when they say that, I want to punch them in the face, because we depend on that income to, you know, feed our kid and stuff. And yeah maybe he'd be able to be rehired? Maybe? But they're not going to be the ones facing the consequences if he isn't, or the consequences we would suffer while he was gone.
And so it always strikes me as some Peter Pan shit that some people can afford and some people can't, while the people in the first group try desperately to convince the people in the second group that it's totes normal and everybody does it and you're a suited boring rube if you can't.
posted by corb at 6:57 AM on June 9, 2016
A couple 'friends' have responded to my husband's talking about frustration in his job by saying "Quit your job and hike the Appalachian Trail!" I kid you not. And when they say that, I want to punch them in the face, because we depend on that income to, you know, feed our kid and stuff. And yeah maybe he'd be able to be rehired? Maybe? But they're not going to be the ones facing the consequences if he isn't, or the consequences we would suffer while he was gone.
And so it always strikes me as some Peter Pan shit that some people can afford and some people can't, while the people in the first group try desperately to convince the people in the second group that it's totes normal and everybody does it and you're a suited boring rube if you can't.
posted by corb at 6:57 AM on June 9, 2016
Basically, whatever you feel for "the trustifarians who can float freely from Burning Man to Kerala to Machu Picchu", the people less privileged than you feel about you and your travel.
posted by Dysk at 7:03 AM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Dysk at 7:03 AM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
Right, but they both have a lot of privilege, and it's the tendency of the former group to effectively communicate "hey look, we're not like those super rich and we can do it, it's totally accessible!" while not recognising that they still have a lot of privilege and that it is accessible To them does not mean it is accessible full stop.
This is a good point, and gets at one of the biggest talking-past-each-other things that I see in these discussions. Yes, it takes a tremendous amount of privilege to do the kind of travel that was used as an example above:
Travel is inaccessible financially, and inaccessible in all kinds of other ways, but the tendency (myself included) is to talk about travel in ways that elide privilege and exagerate its accessibility. It's similar to how people often talk about education as if the door is open to everyone who wants to work, but attending and succeeding at elite institutions takes many layers of privilege beyond the bank account and isn't nearly as accessible as people like to make it sound.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:15 AM on June 9, 2016
This is a good point, and gets at one of the biggest talking-past-each-other things that I see in these discussions. Yes, it takes a tremendous amount of privilege to do the kind of travel that was used as an example above:
"A Fulbright or studying abroad in Country X, a year on the Australian Working Holiday visa tip, six months in a very cheap country, trips to visit people you already know in additional countries, culminating in an EFL certificate and another few years working somewhere in Asia. "But that mostly isn't financial privilege, certainly not in the direct trustifarian sense -- that's social capital, knowing the ways to effectively work a "meritocratic" system to your benefit, having good health, and not having financial responsibilities to your family or carrying consumer debt. So someone says "I did this, it wasn't that hard, and it took only a few thousand dollars out of pocket, way less than buying a used car" and all of that is true, but it is still completely inaccessible to the vast majority of people even if they could afford that used car. And if they can't afford the used car, then it sounds even more dissonant.
Travel is inaccessible financially, and inaccessible in all kinds of other ways, but the tendency (myself included) is to talk about travel in ways that elide privilege and exagerate its accessibility. It's similar to how people often talk about education as if the door is open to everyone who wants to work, but attending and succeeding at elite institutions takes many layers of privilege beyond the bank account and isn't nearly as accessible as people like to make it sound.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:15 AM on June 9, 2016
the people in the first group try desperately to convince the people in the second group that it's totes normal and everybody does it and you're a suited boring rube if you can't.
The thing that really rankles for me, personally, is that when you say you can't afford it, lots of people leap to the assumption that "well, if you just prioritized it instead of getting a car or a season pass to Disney or whatever..." They assume that your not being able to afford to travel is because you're a spoiled consumerist asshole rather than someone who legitimately cannot afford it because of genuine living expenses. And that is a shaming value judgement.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:50 AM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
The thing that really rankles for me, personally, is that when you say you can't afford it, lots of people leap to the assumption that "well, if you just prioritized it instead of getting a car or a season pass to Disney or whatever..." They assume that your not being able to afford to travel is because you're a spoiled consumerist asshole rather than someone who legitimately cannot afford it because of genuine living expenses. And that is a shaming value judgement.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:50 AM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
The thing that really rankles for me, personally, is that when you say you can't afford it, lots of people leap to the assumption that "well, if you just prioritized it instead of getting a car or a season pass to Disney or whatever..."
As terratu beautifully put it in a weight loss thread, "I read the first line as a complete sentence, not a request for advice." Keeping that distinction in mind in travel threads will go far.
posted by Etrigan at 8:00 AM on June 9, 2016
As terratu beautifully put it in a weight loss thread, "I read the first line as a complete sentence, not a request for advice." Keeping that distinction in mind in travel threads will go far.
posted by Etrigan at 8:00 AM on June 9, 2016
Yes, I've definitely been annoyed by travel preachers both because of the "what seems cheap to you is not cheap to me" factor and because of the idea that there's something quasi-spiritual or morally superior about travel when really, yeah!, it feels deeply great not to work and to have no responsibilities. I think we all know that, but getting to do so is not, like, a virtue. And living that way is often only possible due to differences in international currency that render entire countries of people more privileged than others.
But. I want to play devil's advocate to mention a few points. First, (and more mundanely), people recommend all kinds of stuff that is expensive. I mean, heck, TVs and laptops and cable bills are expensive, and someone has to have leisure time to watch, yet there isn't this kind of hate when someone says "you should check out Breaking Bad" or whatever.
But the main point I wanted to raise is that when you travel, you get a barrage of aghast and cautious reactions from people about all kinds of things, like food safety and crime, a lot of which is based in ignorance and fear, another portion of which is from a desire to always have indoor plumbing and central air. I think that's how the "it really isn't that hard / dangerous" speech becomes second nature. (I remember once asking for directions and reporting back to my travel friends that I'd just gotten a bunch of blah-blah about how we shouldn't go there, leading in to a conversation about how that was so typical, that everything we did required getting past a bunch of advice to not do it.) A lot of the time it's presented as concern and caution ("oh is that safe for you to do, dear?") or advice not to go. There's also a lot of "I could never do that" -- not always but sometimes delivered in a tone of "...could I??" There are people who appreciate hearing that flights can be found for only $X, that you can just buy bottled water for basically 50 cents a day, and other info about how it was done. My point is that a certain amount of the travel preaching makes sense in context of how much inertia there is against traveling, inertia that a traveler gets used to pushing back against.
posted by salvia at 10:04 AM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
But. I want to play devil's advocate to mention a few points. First, (and more mundanely), people recommend all kinds of stuff that is expensive. I mean, heck, TVs and laptops and cable bills are expensive, and someone has to have leisure time to watch, yet there isn't this kind of hate when someone says "you should check out Breaking Bad" or whatever.
But the main point I wanted to raise is that when you travel, you get a barrage of aghast and cautious reactions from people about all kinds of things, like food safety and crime, a lot of which is based in ignorance and fear, another portion of which is from a desire to always have indoor plumbing and central air. I think that's how the "it really isn't that hard / dangerous" speech becomes second nature. (I remember once asking for directions and reporting back to my travel friends that I'd just gotten a bunch of blah-blah about how we shouldn't go there, leading in to a conversation about how that was so typical, that everything we did required getting past a bunch of advice to not do it.) A lot of the time it's presented as concern and caution ("oh is that safe for you to do, dear?") or advice not to go. There's also a lot of "I could never do that" -- not always but sometimes delivered in a tone of "...could I??" There are people who appreciate hearing that flights can be found for only $X, that you can just buy bottled water for basically 50 cents a day, and other info about how it was done. My point is that a certain amount of the travel preaching makes sense in context of how much inertia there is against traveling, inertia that a traveler gets used to pushing back against.
posted by salvia at 10:04 AM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
To counter your devil's advocate points:
I mean, heck, TVs and laptops and cable bills are expensive, and someone has to have leisure time to watch, yet there isn't this kind of hate when someone says "you should check out Breaking Bad" or whatever.
Possibly because checking out BREAKING BAD isn't something you have to take time off work or leave town to do, and because there are lower-cost versions of doing them. Yeah, TVs are expensive and so are laptops, but it is at least within the realm of possibility to borrow the DVDs from the library and watch them on the laptop you got from work. And speaking of work, you dont' have to ask for time off work to watch them, you can save them for after you've done work.
There's also a lot of "I could never do that" -- not always but sometimes delivered in a tone of "...could I??" There are people who appreciate hearing that flights can be found for only $X, that you can just buy bottled water for basically 50 cents a day, and other info about how it was done. My point is that a certain amount of the travel preaching makes sense in context of how much inertia there is against traveling, inertia that a traveler gets used to pushing back against.
It strikes me that withholding such advice unless asked for may be the surest way to know that it is welcome, and the easiest way to avoid the "when I say I can't afford it, I really do mean I can't afford it" miscommunication that happens.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:53 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I mean, heck, TVs and laptops and cable bills are expensive, and someone has to have leisure time to watch, yet there isn't this kind of hate when someone says "you should check out Breaking Bad" or whatever.
Possibly because checking out BREAKING BAD isn't something you have to take time off work or leave town to do, and because there are lower-cost versions of doing them. Yeah, TVs are expensive and so are laptops, but it is at least within the realm of possibility to borrow the DVDs from the library and watch them on the laptop you got from work. And speaking of work, you dont' have to ask for time off work to watch them, you can save them for after you've done work.
There's also a lot of "I could never do that" -- not always but sometimes delivered in a tone of "...could I??" There are people who appreciate hearing that flights can be found for only $X, that you can just buy bottled water for basically 50 cents a day, and other info about how it was done. My point is that a certain amount of the travel preaching makes sense in context of how much inertia there is against traveling, inertia that a traveler gets used to pushing back against.
It strikes me that withholding such advice unless asked for may be the surest way to know that it is welcome, and the easiest way to avoid the "when I say I can't afford it, I really do mean I can't afford it" miscommunication that happens.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:53 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
International travel is still not that expensive compared to common middle class expenses like late model cars, lawn care, season passes to Disney, etc.
There are trustifarians who can hop on a yacht and spend $50k on a bottle of wine
Then there are the people who by connections or network or company they keep get to tag along to the yacht daytrip
Then there are the people who have no debts, family, job obligations etc, and who have enough saved up to travel around Europe
Then there are the people who worked two jobs and saved up to backpack around Europe
Then there are the travel bloggers who get to stay at this swanky hotel in Amsterdam in exchange for sponsored posts
Then there are those who leave the 50 states to go teach English in Thailand as a novel experience
Then there are the freelancers who chose all the cheap airflights and hostels or Airbnb's, who struggle for days on end to get work, then pose carefully curated shots in Instagram
Then there are those who truly have nothing and are struggling even if they live in the most powerful country on earth
Then there are people like me from the third world who read about people talking about first-world middle class expenses; who can't get a visa in a lot of countries because their brownness is pre-determined as a cause for possible overstaying (translated as: because I am brown and interested in going overseas, I will have to go through a lot of red tape and money because governments assume I have strong intentions of being an illegal immigrant).
Which is to say—travel is different for everyone. I'm glad to have read that New Yorker article, it tells me that people over there have some self-awareness that these tropes exist and is annoying as fuck. There's nothing more tonally deaf than Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, or as people over this side often call "First World Problems."
posted by pleasebekind at 9:54 AM on June 13, 2016 [3 favorites]
There are trustifarians who can hop on a yacht and spend $50k on a bottle of wine
Then there are the people who by connections or network or company they keep get to tag along to the yacht daytrip
Then there are the people who have no debts, family, job obligations etc, and who have enough saved up to travel around Europe
Then there are the people who worked two jobs and saved up to backpack around Europe
Then there are the travel bloggers who get to stay at this swanky hotel in Amsterdam in exchange for sponsored posts
Then there are those who leave the 50 states to go teach English in Thailand as a novel experience
Then there are the freelancers who chose all the cheap airflights and hostels or Airbnb's, who struggle for days on end to get work, then pose carefully curated shots in Instagram
Then there are those who truly have nothing and are struggling even if they live in the most powerful country on earth
Then there are people like me from the third world who read about people talking about first-world middle class expenses; who can't get a visa in a lot of countries because their brownness is pre-determined as a cause for possible overstaying (translated as: because I am brown and interested in going overseas, I will have to go through a lot of red tape and money because governments assume I have strong intentions of being an illegal immigrant).
Which is to say—travel is different for everyone. I'm glad to have read that New Yorker article, it tells me that people over there have some self-awareness that these tropes exist and is annoying as fuck. There's nothing more tonally deaf than Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, or as people over this side often call "First World Problems."
posted by pleasebekind at 9:54 AM on June 13, 2016 [3 favorites]
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