Modern-Day Odysseus: Traveling Beyond the Trends

If you're reading this post, you're definitely using social media. And chances are, you've been exposed to a flood of content promoting specific trends followed by many—until they lose their meaning. Until the fizz fades from the soda. By then, however, this content may have already made you feel that your life is dull and meaningless. That you don’t make enough money, or if you do, you’re not using it wisely. That you’re wasting your life, not traveling as much as you "should."

Like many of us, you’ve likely fallen victim to a "neo-travel" culture, where the goal isn’t the journey or the destination. Instead, it’s the narrative: the journey gives me freedom, therefore I’m free, therefore I’ve escaped my struggles, therefore I’m successful, therefore I’m better than you. It’s the marketing of an idyllic life that has become both an identity and a weapon against others.

A few years ago, in 2016, I left my hometown, Serres—miserable at the time but now beloved. I moved to England, where studies, work, and other factors kept me abroad. I had the chance to live, to experience scents, tastes, moments, people, and sights that, for my provincial brain, were overwhelming. In 2020, I was abruptly brought back by COVID. That long journey and my time away taught me much about who I am, both professionally and personally—perhaps because that was my goal all along.

I met people who lost themselves along the way because their goals were different. They got lost in desires, passions, and egos—perhaps because their initial aim was something else. The same applies to shorter trips as well.

What I want to say is this:
If the purpose of your trip is merely to escape daily life, if you’re chasing the perfect pose and the photos to post—wondering which one makes you look happier, wealthier, or more cosmopolitan—if you’re spending more than you earn to collect magnets from countries just to "demagnetize" your fridge, you’ll return home feeling emptier than ever.

Because it’s just another pleasure—like sex, alcohol, or drugs—designed for fleeting satisfaction, not the lasting solution you’re searching for.

The solution we seek is permanent. Stable and far removed from the gaze of others. Emptiness cannot be filled with more emptiness; it only grows.

Joy can be found right where you are now, at this very moment. In your bed. In your chair. In the bathroom. In the beautiful tree in the square. In the people you love. See them, and you’ll save a fortune on unnecessary expenses that, in any case, don’t provide the permanent solution you’re seeking. And stop flaunting yourself to those who can’t even afford a trip.

They might have traveled to the moment itself, to life itself, and seen what you’re searching for in every tile of South America and Oceania. Because when they travel, they’ll depart just as fulfilled as they’ll be when they return.

If Odysseus were alive today and followed trends, he’d never make it to Ithaca. Quite simply, because he’d be too busy sending his buddies photos of the Sirens’ curves and uploading stories about Circe’s magic while losing his crew.

Travel, modern-day Odysseus, not to show that you’ve traveled. Travel to change your mindset when you return. And maybe then you won’t need to flee your problems again but will face them instead.

This is written by me, a former modern-day Odysseus.

#TravelTrend #JustLive