With winter break coming up, and my last round of finals almost over, I feel obligated to write about my thoughts on the time off. Success is earned, not given. I'm almost full-time graduated from Cal; I just got accepted into the Graduate school I want to attend, and I'm almost full-time employed in Silicon Valley, yet I feel absolutely no need of slowing down.. Granted, everyone needs to take a breather -- mine's going to be a sick East Coast city sampler with lots of friends, lots of rest, and lots of fun this Christmas. But what's the point in a real vacation?
Two years ago, I traveled with my sister to Prague for my what should have been an awesome spring break and birthday bash.. The whole experience felt surreal: the people, the food, the bars, the hostels, etc. But at the same time, I always felt like I was wasting time -- Prague feels like a fleeting memory at this point, and I would have much rather slept and played video games the whole time I was there.. If you stay in foreign country for less than a month, then the time spent there is a sinkhole. It isn't a so-called new experience through vivid, cultural puppeteering.. Hell no.
Traveling to different countries for that long just makes you a damn tourist, the same tourist that does the exact same things as generations past. What happened to novel experiences where the culture is shoved down your throat, rather than spoon-fed through some English reading tour guide?
Iceland, Greenland, and Antarctica are just 3 of the many countries that I want to LIVE in, not vacate to. Push your boundaries and stay curious. Vacation is just a pitiful excuse to avoid both of those things; you end up seeing more than you're doing, and in my line of thought, you're better off watching a slideshow of HD images from your bedroom, than to fly out for a mentally disorienting dreamland.
If I'm not learning, I'm wasting my time. I have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and novel experiences, and being a tourist bores me. I think vacations are stupid. I'd much rather head home, eat a delicious meal, and hang out with my family -- that too me is the best vacation I could ask for.