Jason Tangson | Traveling can only take you so far

When | Real progress comes from within

By Jason Tangson 01/26/15 2:27am

Second-semester salutations of “What’d you do?” signal the wrapping up of winter break. Many of us will have vacationed abroad. Some of the more free-spirited types will have gone off the beaten track — as recommended by their Lonely Planet guidebook — to hidden treasures like Laos, “the next Thailand”; Nicaragua, “a less-Anglo Costa Rica”; or Budapest, Hungary, “the poor man’s Prague,” to backpack, couch-surf and maybe even hitchhike. With a GoPro in one hand and youthful determination in the other, the world is their oyster.

Very often, they do so to “find themselves,” hoping that their experiences will solidify some worldly identity and a sense of noble purpose, enlightened by human diversity. The pursuit is noble, right?

Though never at such an attainability as now, this sort of edifying escapism isn’t particularly new. Warlpiri walkabouts, Candide, Huckleberry Finn and, more recently, the fairy-tale memoir “Eat, Pray, Love” all reflect a cross-cultural motif of a physical journey effecting a metaphysical one.

The theme is that travel makes for a better person. To travel is to discover the world, its diversity and its humbling magnitude. The opportunities, the novel challenges and the kind souls and rough patches along the way all make for a wiser individual.

While I easily agree with this pursuit and its benefits, those who are looking to find themselves — be it their emotions or their identity — won’t do so abroad. To travel is to play in a sort of fantasy world, where the world becomes your oyster. The liberty of being able to experiment without consequence — You’ll never see these people again! — affords a sense of social giddiness and risk taking. You learn to surrender to chance and forge five-minute connections with strangers, with each turn a possibility of adventure and novelty. Survival mode turns on.

But these are distractions. Short trips abroad end up feeling like a one-night stand: It’s lots of fun, and the feeling’s nice, but you didn’t really get to know the place well enough to be able to connect with it. Oftentimes, you end up wishing for something more profound, whatever that means. When it’s back to home, the routine seeps back quickly.

For the longer-term travelers, running away and putting life back home on pause — while friends, family and community are still moving forward — will only delay the eventual comedown. The same problems will still be there when the traveler returns, and at some point they must to come up with a feasible solution. Self-discovery is an inner journey, not an outer one. While the chronicles of experiences may aid in this meditative and visceral process, motivation still must come from one’s own will and self-understanding.

Propelled by anxiety and a sense of aimlessness, I suddenly decided to take a gap year two weeks before college was to begin. From being a shepherd in Israel to bindle-stiffing in London, I fell into a sort of bum-bohemian lifestyle, vine swinging on unsolicited generosity, Chabad invitations and snap friendships with fellow travelers and lost souls along the way. The stories and the personalities are rich, but I’ll resist sharing. These were the most memorable and formable moments in my life.

Yet the same self-doubting insecurities of posterity continued to linger, and there was nothing about being in the desert that made grappling with these questions easier. Well, I learned I didn’t want to be a shepherd forever.

But being abroad taught me to be independent and trusting of strangers, who more or less kept me alive. These lessons were invaluable, and I am more relaxed as a result.

Despite the temptations — It’s pretty cold in Boston — I resisted traveling this winter break. Instead, I stayed home partly to spend time in my hometown, with my hometown friends and to strengthen old connections rather than forging new ones. But mostly, traveling is damn expensive and consumptive. That money could be used instead for tuition.

JASON TANGSON is a College junior from Cambridge, Mass., studying linguistics. His email address is jasontangson@icloud.com

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