Stephanie Moreland
Professional Writer & Photographer
Stephanie Moreland
Professional Writer & Photographer
The Cost of Doing Business
This entry was posted on 4/8/2008 5:34 AM and is filed under On Writing.
I've prayed for travel. In fact, I've spent the last several years crying, stewing, worrying, and dreaming about traveling as much as humanly possible. In the last year, Travel has come knocking at my door, bags packed, ticket in hand, and ready to take me on to my next destination. The problem is of course, money. Isn't money always the problem? I have now agreed to go visit Oregon for three weeks and South Africa for another two weeks in addition to several miniature trips sprinkled throughout the next several months. I'm afraid there is no hope for me---the travel cycle will never end. Or perhaps it won't end until I wind up in the poor house.
You can't pick up a newspaper or turn on the television these days without hearing about the dreaded "R" word. Recession is everywhere and travel just doesn't seem to be a reasonable investment right now. I've done my best to cut corners and to make necessary sacrifices. But those bills add up, and there are always financial surprises around every corner. But, despite all of this, I am foolish enough to be planning yet another major vacation after recently having returned from my four month stint in Europe. Does that make me a fool for doing it, or would I be a fool not to? It should be time to get down to the business of being responsible.
I am aware of the fact that most 30 year olds are concerned with buying a house, banking their investments, and starting a family. As it turns out, I'm only partially thinking about the last of these. I'm in love, to be sure, but I dream of taking off to some remote island in Greece or trekking across Egypt with him. I'm not thinking about the white picket fence and the little rug rats running around (okay, perhaps I am thinking about rugrats a little, but I tend to picture them in the back seat of the car while he drives us up the coast of California). I'm afraid that travel is now a permanent fixture in my life---like a personality trait that will never change. I love to travel. I live to travel. I spend hours a day thinking about it and obsessing about it. I now work full-time in the travel industry, yet I spend all of my free time looking at travel information. I am hopelessly in love--in more ways than one.
This cycle of love started years ago when my family took me on my first road-trip when I was hardly old enough to kick the back of the front seat with my little shoes, and this cycle is not likely to end any time soon. Someone once said to me, "If you plan the trip, the money will come." At the time, I laughed at her. Six months later, I was boarding a plane to Europe. Let's just hope she will be right again.
You can't pick up a newspaper or turn on the television these days without hearing about the dreaded "R" word. Recession is everywhere and travel just doesn't seem to be a reasonable investment right now. I've done my best to cut corners and to make necessary sacrifices. But those bills add up, and there are always financial surprises around every corner. But, despite all of this, I am foolish enough to be planning yet another major vacation after recently having returned from my four month stint in Europe. Does that make me a fool for doing it, or would I be a fool not to? It should be time to get down to the business of being responsible.
I am aware of the fact that most 30 year olds are concerned with buying a house, banking their investments, and starting a family. As it turns out, I'm only partially thinking about the last of these. I'm in love, to be sure, but I dream of taking off to some remote island in Greece or trekking across Egypt with him. I'm not thinking about the white picket fence and the little rug rats running around (okay, perhaps I am thinking about rugrats a little, but I tend to picture them in the back seat of the car while he drives us up the coast of California). I'm afraid that travel is now a permanent fixture in my life---like a personality trait that will never change. I love to travel. I live to travel. I spend hours a day thinking about it and obsessing about it. I now work full-time in the travel industry, yet I spend all of my free time looking at travel information. I am hopelessly in love--in more ways than one.
This cycle of love started years ago when my family took me on my first road-trip when I was hardly old enough to kick the back of the front seat with my little shoes, and this cycle is not likely to end any time soon. Someone once said to me, "If you plan the trip, the money will come." At the time, I laughed at her. Six months later, I was boarding a plane to Europe. Let's just hope she will be right again.