Why Travelling In Your Twenties Is Never A Bad Idea

As someone who has already made this monumental decision, I can fully vouch for the old clichés about travelling like;

‘If not now, when?’

‘Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.’

The one about the world being a book and if you don’t travel you’re always on the same page… or something to that effect.

They’re true, so true, but you might sound like a tit when you start spouting off quotes from carefully curated Pinterest boards. For me, the travelling began the moment I decided that I wanted to go. Even though I was still in cold and rainy London. Making that choice put everything into perspective.

As a twenty-something you have literally NO responsibilities, none at all. No partner, no kids, no house – I realise a select few twenty-something’s might have some of these things (yay for them) but for a lot of us they’re so far out of reach. This used to feel like a bummer but actually it’s incredibly freeing – we’re free as birds, not tied down to anything.

Of course, hopefully in the future we’ll all have families, beautiful homes and high flying careers which will mean we have to stay put in one place, but for now we don’t – so it’s a very good time to up sticks.

Deciding to travel makes everything that you thought was important and all your stresses just melt away. You gain a lot of perspective.

Your job that made you break out in stress rashes, your flat share complete with evil landlady (hi Michelle), that dude who just isn’t that into you (hi Guy, Josh, Luke… I could go on) just seem so trivial. That’s probably because they are.

From deciding to travel to leaving my job, home and good old London, after a helluva leaving do, took less that 3 weeks. Not hard at all!

As for taking time out of your career, don’t worry, it will always be there, sure you might be a few years behind once you return to it, but all that experience doesn’t just disappear. You’ll regret not seeing the world while you’re young, able and, well… hot. You literally have the rest of your life to work – seriously; we’ll all be retiring at 85!

So, if you have even the slightest inkling to see the world, don’t wait, do it sooner rather than later and it’s an experience that will enrich your life and provide you with years of beautiful memories…. And, who knows, maybe even a naff tattoo or an STI.