I’m currently about 7 hours into my flight to Incheon Airport (South Korea), the first leg on my way to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I slept about four hours last night to make sure I could sleep at 10am San Francisco time, since that’s around 1am in Cambodia, and I wanted to get on a somewhat “normal” sleep schedule by the time I arrive.
I had that first airplane snack (hunan chicken, it was sufficiently-airplane-level-gross, in case you were wondering), and then pulled down my eye mask and slept. When I woke up, I popped on the seatback entertainment (thanks, United Dreamliner!) and ended up turning on Generation Wealth. It’s exactly what it sounds like, an exploration of both American and international wealth and how it impacts our society. Spoiler Alert: It’s the opposite of great.

Why am I mentioning this? Well, because there’s one thing that no matter how often I travel or where I’m going, someone (at least one someone) is aghast at the idea of whatever I’m doing.

Ok, so how do these two things relate, right?

Well, one of the assertions in Generation Wealth is that we’re all so consumed with… well… consuming media, that we’ve forgotten how to function in reality. In a way, I think that’s what drives the complete bafflement for some when they hear that I’m traveling. Alone. On an adventure.

It’s something they’ve only seen in movies, or on TV or on someone’s insta or Snap story… and they’ve been happily living vicariously through these modes of media consumption without realizing that they also have the ability to participate in such wild things like going outside or gasp taking a trip abroad*. And the thing is, the longer we consume instead of produce, instead of interact, the more and more removed we become from the actual world we live in.

Recognizing that, I can hypothesize about how someone would be so incredulous regarding my ability to eschew them and just *do* things. It seems… unbelievable.

And that’s kind of why, even though I was already thinking about it, I decided to pull out my netbook and fire back up my blog for this trip. I feel like it’s important to document that it’s not only celebrities that are engaging. That deserve to travel. That are capable of actual physical experiences outside of our culture of consumption.
For the next three weeks, I promise to experience as much as I can, as authentically as I can, and document it to the best of my ability while keeping my focus on being in the moment. I’m really excited, and I hope that whomever might stumble across this is ready for another wild adventure.
#dokidarawingingit here we go.
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*I recognize that this is NOT true for everyone and absolutely comes from a position of incredible privilige. Bear with me for a while though, if you can stomach it. Or if you’re a basic white chick sipping her fall PSL with your Ugg booties on and reading this on your newest iPhone…I guess that’s alright. Beggars can’t be choosers.