I’ve traveled quite a bit in the last few years.
Here’s how I view travel…
Travel isn’t going to magically make you a BETTER person, it’s NOT going to make you become a millionaire, it’s NOT going to open previously closed doors…
What it is going to do is give you perspective.
You want to know something REALLY funny?
I never cared TOO MUCH about money until I saw how poor people actually lived.
And I mean really poor people, I’m NOT talking about those lazy, whining babies in America.
I’m talking about people who grow up in homemade shacks, quietly crying themselves to sleep because it rains every night and the rain seeps through the cracks of the shack into the bed (floor and light blanket, actually).
I’m talking about people who view sunglasses as luxuries for rich people.
Until I saw people like this, I wasn’t terribly obsessed with MAKING MONEY, I was happy by just making enough to simply live well.
Until I met people who say “I wish I could do what you do, but it’s not possible for me” and mean it, I didn’t REALLY understand just how GREAT it is to actually be born in the west.
I live in Vietnam (in luxury) but in a million years I would NEVER want to be Vietnamese.
Being born Vietnamese in Vietnam would be god damn awful.
But living here gives me some much needed perspective.
I didn’t know how important financial security was until I saw people who really DON’T actually have it.
It’s NOT until you meet people who have nothing… do you realize how wonderful that having just something actually is.
Anyone who says ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’ never had nothing.
— Elijah “The Realist”
Until next time.
Your man,
-Elijah “The Realist”
