What Do Travels Give and Take From Me?

A man was not created to fly, we barely can learn to walk. Therefore, I think it's a lunatic-psychotic-like state to be able to transport so freely from one zone and culture to another in just a matter of hours. And I still hold to that after visiting over 60 countries and taking flights almost every week. Those who know me know that I get sick by staying home for more than a week. It's a speed of life I was introduced to very early on, and it has made me bulletproof—resilient to every change.

My whole life revolves around the next destinations and steps. But I don't measure them or sit down to reflect. I move on, to the next. Is this unstable character or just juvenile escapism?

Over the years, I have learned to combine it with a mission, so I can give something back to the place I am visiting. I recommend it to everyone who actually doesn't like to travel - it makes everything more… sustainable.

There’s a theory I hold, perhaps stubbornly, perhaps out of instinct: that man was not made to fly. Which is technically true. We are being flown, we don’t fly. Our success in flying depends on a few people like the pilot, engineer, and navigator. It's out of control, completely.

Speed of our own Light

We were made to evolve, not to teleport. Our ancestors spent seasons crossing deserts, centuries migrating between lands. Now we fast-forward across the planet and out in the span of an in-flight movie. It’s efficient. But what have we sacrificed for that efficiency?

I’ve often thought that modern air travel is not just unnatural, it's yeah… what, actually?
We suspend our bodies in aluminum cylinders, shoot across the sky at hundreds of miles per hour, and land in foreign zones, temporal, cultural, and psychological and full of strangers. All based on a fragile thing - trust. It's an invention that has both connected and divided the world, like the World Wide Web.

So next time, when you decide to complain about your flight status, endulge in a quote from my favorite stand up comedians, Louis CK:

“Everything is amazing right now and nobody’s happy. Like, in my lifetime the changes in the world have been incredible… Flying is the worst because people come back from flights and they tell you…a horror story…They’re like: “It was the worst day of my life. First of all, we didn’t board for twenty minutes, and then we get on the plane and they made us sit there on the runway…” Oh really, what happened next? Did you fly through the air incredibly, like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight you non-contributing zero?! You’re flying! It’s amazing! Everybody on every plane should just constantly be going: “Oh my God! Wow!” You’re flying! You’re sitting in a chair, in the sky!”

― Louis CK

Big picture, small picture

The one you post on Social Media is the smallest picture idea of travelling. It's not giving anyone anything. It can only make people dislike you more, and if you do it for yourself than why posting it?

I recently returned from a place where two continents are separated by a five-minute bridge. An extraordinary geographic fact but for the locals, just part of their daily commute. That's a small picture.

That’s the paradox of modern travel: what once would’ve been a breathtaking expedition is now reduced to routine. We change languages, currencies, and climates before lunchtime. The access ave us excess.

If we combine it with practicing international relations, it's a bigger picture.

The Big picture in my heart is doing it to share your absolute best with the world. You are a host and guest at once. You're hosting your own human experience, and being a guest in someone's domestic reality.

I believe you have to evolve as a human to take the most of what an amazing privilege - the travel is.

No words of mine are needed because of one of the best movies made in the history, The God Will Hunting, that has already spoke loud for me:

Travelling is a Transaction

Not only on a paper. It's a social construct, with people being its biggest working capital. There wouldn't be any of the Ancient landmarks, amazing restaurants, art galleries without its unstoppable people and their ancestors contributing to it. So it all goes back to being a passive or active while travelling. Do we want to contribute (giving) or just use passively (taking) what is already offered to us? Like in life, being active makes us happier.

Every good negotiation is about giving something you are willing to give by taking something you are willing to have. But we always meet in the middle. So we don't solely decide what is the middle, but we do it through a common ground.

That's how I see travelling. What we give, we get. Even in 5 stars hotels, we can negotiate the terms.
In the Middle East is a form of respect - to feel seen and connected. That’s social capital at work and pleasure.

Every journey across borders is not only a financial decision but a negotiation of norms, power, and perception. Make that transaction worth the money and energy, and you will come out very rich.

To be continued.