One of the most nauseating things about the website "Couch Surfing" is the amount of people you find claiming to be "professional travelers". I would say that it's roughly 25% of the people on the website. Their picture invariably shows them atop Machu Pichu or some other well-known place, wearing a pancho and possibly a wool-knit cap, a beard of several days or in the case of a girl eyes that look pensively into the distance as if to say, "We're so small in this world. Can't we just get along? Go vegan or go home". The professional traveler is, patently, not a professional travel. It's like if someone claims to be good at surfing, it usually means they're not, and it usually means they're an asshole. The professional traveler has a job in the states as a software engineer or an occupational therapist but at least once a year they pull their disgusting wool-knit cap out of the drawer, buy 14 Lonely Planets, and hit the road. Mostly they hit the road so they can go to hostels and tell other people that they're professional travelers. And also so they can get their picture taken atop Machu Pichu.
Now, of course, there's a shred of ridiculnous to this because I want to be a professional traveler. I don't claim to be one (I'm a bum), but I want to be one. I want to get paid to travel. I want to do the raddest things possible at all times, basically whatever I want, and I want to be monetarily compensanted and in a slightly lavish way. That's part of the reason I'm writing this blog, because I feel like if I learn to write about 79 times better than I currently write, it might one day happen for me. But I know there are also other ways to do it, like working at a hostel for room and board and a small amount of money or doing a job that you can do remotely, like translating, which doesn't really count but obviously allows you to be more or less footloose and fancy free. Part of the reason I decided to leave Arica in the north of Chile a few days ago despite the fact that I had very little money because lately I've started to believe that you must find something you love, and do it at all costs. You must be a person that puts "passion" before "comfort", to lamely paraphrase Macklemore. But it's true, and I knew it. I knew that there would be some shitty moments in the next few days, but I knew that I had to do it, because that's precisely how I want my life to be, and precisely what I want this blog to be about. Which means that though I'm comfortable right now (and also pretty happy), I'll be taking my meager savings from this job and hitting the road soon, probably in the next couple weeks. To wonder a bit more. To be uncomfortable, but to have passion. The professional traveler. The professional asshole. The wool-knit cap. The eyes that look pensively into the distance as if to say, "This place actually kind of sucks. When's lunch?"
--Wetzler
Now, of course, there's a shred of ridiculnous to this because I want to be a professional traveler. I don't claim to be one (I'm a bum), but I want to be one. I want to get paid to travel. I want to do the raddest things possible at all times, basically whatever I want, and I want to be monetarily compensanted and in a slightly lavish way. That's part of the reason I'm writing this blog, because I feel like if I learn to write about 79 times better than I currently write, it might one day happen for me. But I know there are also other ways to do it, like working at a hostel for room and board and a small amount of money or doing a job that you can do remotely, like translating, which doesn't really count but obviously allows you to be more or less footloose and fancy free. Part of the reason I decided to leave Arica in the north of Chile a few days ago despite the fact that I had very little money because lately I've started to believe that you must find something you love, and do it at all costs. You must be a person that puts "passion" before "comfort", to lamely paraphrase Macklemore. But it's true, and I knew it. I knew that there would be some shitty moments in the next few days, but I knew that I had to do it, because that's precisely how I want my life to be, and precisely what I want this blog to be about. Which means that though I'm comfortable right now (and also pretty happy), I'll be taking my meager savings from this job and hitting the road soon, probably in the next couple weeks. To wonder a bit more. To be uncomfortable, but to have passion. The professional traveler. The professional asshole. The wool-knit cap. The eyes that look pensively into the distance as if to say, "This place actually kind of sucks. When's lunch?"
--Wetzler
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