If there is one thing I hate is being judged for the travel I do.

I recently read an article for the 2nd time accidentally (I had kind of forgotten I’d read it until I got further down the page) and it pissed me off more than it did the first time. I don’t really want to promote but if you want to read it, you can find it here. But I disagree with about 99.9% of what she says.

Basically this woman is all upset because she doesn’t travel and obviously doesn’t like it that others do. In her words “And when you hold travel up on some kind of pedestal, you sound classist as hell, and I wish you would stop that”.

A) If you really want to travel you will find a way.

I didn’t travel for a long time because I was in a low paid job and was crap at saving money. That doesn’t mean I didn’t want to travel, it just meant that I wasn’t prepared to sacrifice other things to do it. I’m still crap at saving to be fair.

B) Don’t blame other people for doing things that you want to do.

Sure I’d love to climb a mountain but given my current fitness there is no way I would be able to do it unless I was willing to give up the Mars bar for a year or 20 to get to a better fitness state that would allow me to climb said mountain. But I don’t sit in my house an hate the people who do climb mountains.

C) If you don’t want to travel then don’t feel guilty for not travelling

It’s kind of as simple as that. Some people want to travel and there are some who really don’t want to. It’s not up to us to judge them either way and we shouldn’t feel guilty about travelling or not travelling either.

D) “I don’t travel much because I’m poor”

This really got me mad – she says that she chooses to pay rent so she doesn’t get evicted and to buy groceries “because I like eating food, and also, as a mammal, need it to survive” – so are you saying that because I travel that I don’t pay my rent or eat food?

Here’s some things I’d like to say:

Your article makes you sound like a whiny ‘poor me’ child. It’s probably why there is no comment section on the article because everyone knows you would get ripped into and be told to pull your head in.

Yes I am lucky to be able to travel like I do and no I do not have rich parents whose money allows me to travel. I work hard to get to the places I go. I live on my own so I have to pay all my bills – rent, utilities, groceries – myself yet I manage to have an overseas trip at least once a year and whilst I get paid reasonably ok, I don’t have much savings to live off.

I do not think I am privileged or classist by being able to travel but while I agree that there are some people out there that probably are like that, please do not paint me with the same brush. I travel because I want to and I make it happen.

And now for the lighter side

via Daily Prompt: Disagree