Traveling is a personality trait
An opinion that has seized the millennial popular consciousness is that “traveling is not a personality trait”. Though it has logical roots, I wholeheartedly disagree. I believe that traveling is a personality trait, or at the very least lends to a list of easily attributable values and beliefs. And today I write a defense of travel for the well-traveled millennial.
From tourists ruining and endangering Hawaii, to the high environmental cost of discretionary travel, the consequences of careless tourists are very real. But the main complaint disqualifying travel as a personality trait is that everyone wants to travel. In the aviation industry, it is an axiom that the demand for air travel always vastly exceeds the available capacity on the market. In short, if everyone likes traveling, it’s not unique. What differentiates those who are able to travel and those who aren’t? The answer is wealth. The monied travel, and the poor are left paying for necessities in their own home. The idea that being well-traveled is an admirable and novel personality trait is fundamentally classist and something that everyone would attain if they could.
Before breaking down the above argument, it’s important to assess what personality means as it’s used here. Though generally, personality can refer to any clutch of characteristics that make an individual who they are, in colloquial usage, it means “interesting”. So, if a person doesn’t have personality, they aren’t interesting. Someone who works a 9–5, comes home to a frozen meal that they prepped over the weekend, and then plays video games or watches Netflix through the evening would have a personality, generally speaking: they are risk-averse, are probably lacking in the way of hobbies, and are likely somewhat frugal. Alternatively, they could be described as not having a personality. What qualifies as not having a personality differs across the median in the friend group. Within a group of finance bros, a fratty workaholic who isn’t particularly funny or sociable would be considered sans personality. Yet, if that same individual is placed within a group of classically quirky and nerdy software engineers (a dying breed by the way, slowly being supplanted by the cousin species, tech bro), they would probably be considered not only to have a personality, but to be a personality.
So back to travel being a personality trait. Despite the clear classism, travel is a choice that people with a certain amount of wealth can make. I’m not going to be as tone-deaf as to say that traveling is possible for everyone, much less affordable. But above a certain middle-class level, traveling becomes a choice. It’s about how someone choses to spend their money that matters. Will someone buy this season’s it bag as a treat to themselves, or will they spend a week in Southeast Asia? Will they spend fifty-thousand dollars on an entry-level Mercedes, or will they buy a Volkswagen and use the differential to backpack Europe? The same way purchasing a bag or a car don’t necessarily entail being into fashion or automobiles, taking an expensive vacation doesn’t mean that someone is into traveling. But no one is accusing either of the other two of not being personality traits. Why does choosing to spend money on travel automatically disqualify it?
By the general definition of personality, enjoying travel certainly is a personality trait. It signals a curiosity of the world, of its people and of its natural aspects. It signals the desire to satisfy these traits despite the potential exhaustion and certain expense. It also signals appoint of an expanse of knowledge acquired through touring the world and learning about things firsthand. These are all personality traits that come with a desire to travel. Even if everyone wants to travel, it’s certainly not valued by everyone to the same degree. Though wealth helps with travel and makes it easier, traveling is at least tiring for everyone except the ultra-rich.
Someone who is well-traveled is a more interesting person than the same person, minus the travel. They have experiences, stories, learnings, and insights that are more profound than those of those who haven’t traveled. Of course, those who make traveling their only personality trait can be a bit more concerning. I can think of only one person that I know who’s truly well-traveled and has no other personality, but that really speaks more to how rare that is. But as an aspect of their personality, a trait that they sometimes indulge in, even as someone who does it because they want to increase the number of countries they’ve been to, travel only improves someone’s personality, even in the case of my adventuring friend.
Like I’ve discussed previously, any sort of travel expands horizons, whether it’s on or off the well-trodden path. I used to think that the only authentic way of experiencing a foreign culture or country was to live in one for an extended period of time, anywhere from a few months to a few years. Anything less than that was superficial. But not everyone has that opportunity available to them, and travel, no matter how guided or short, can be a tool to better understand not only other cultures, but our own. In Chinese, there is an expression that I often think of. It means “better to walk a thousand miles than to read a thousand scrolls”. And that has been entirely true in my experience. Reading about the stereotypical cultural differences between the French and the Germans versus meeting French people in Germany and German people in France. Hearing about the rapid growth of Asian cities, versus feeling their energy and vibrancy when visiting one. Recently, I went on an entirely unplanned trip to Iceland and now I’m completely reconsidering my reluctance traveling to places where the main attraction is nature.
I don’t deny that I’m tremendously privileged to be able to travel the way I do. But I caught the bug early on from my parents, entirely middle-class immigrants who insisted on bringing my sister and I to places when we were younger. These trips were never all-out, glitzy vacations. We have a lot of road trips, we generally sleep quadruple occupancy, and we visit grocery stores. I keep a very close eye on budget when I travel, ensuring that I stay well within budget. My trips are still on the tiring side and are certainly more exhausting than relaxing. The same way, I’m not encouraging people to spend beyond their means, or to reprimand others for not traveling. But don’t deny that traveling is valuable, don’t hold it only as some bourgeoise activity, and realize that yes, traveling does make a person better.
