By Rachel Puryear

People often dream of traveling “when they’re older,” usually because they assume they’ll need to first achieve certain milestones in life – finishing education, establishing a career, making a certain amount of money, becoming sophisticated enough, finding a partner, raising a family, and perhaps even retiring; before they can freely hit the road and roam around as they please.

However, there’s a strong case to be made for traveling while you’re still young, too. Sure, you can enjoy more luxurious travel when you’re older and more established. And younger people can face more difficulties in traveling – such as having less money, less experience, and having much less career advancement. But doing whatever it takes to make travel happen earlier in life, too, is well worth those efforts.

Accordingly, here are several reasons to make it happen, and travel while you’re still young – as well as addressing some concerns younger people tend to have about doing such:

There’s Probably Less Tying You Down Now

As you go through life, you tend to achieve more milestones – establishing a career, getting married, having children, and so forth. All in all, these are generally good things.

However, responsibilities such as work schedules, child and family care, paying mortgages and other bills, and other obligations can make it more difficult to travel.

Younger people tend to have fewer of these obligations, and therefore fewer barriers to travel. If you don’t do it now, you might later wish you had done it now, because it could get a lot harder later on (possibly until middle age or even retirement, that is, but see the next point for why you might not want to wait that long).

You’re Likely in Good Health

If you’re lucky, you’re still in pretty good health when you’re relatively young, and you may be in the best medical condition now that you’ll ever be in.

If you wait until you are a lot older to travel, you could have more health problems and limitations by then. That doesn’t mean you can’t still travel throughout you life, and you might be able to afford more luxurious accommodations many years from now – but you might also have to juggle a busier schedule of medical care and restrictions, and you might not be able to navigate terrain out in nature as well. You might be instead watching from a high-end tour bus by then.

You can do the more physically demanding travel now, and then enjoy the higher end, and more relaxed pace travel when you’re older.

It’s a Fantastic Way to Learn About the World

Going to college is great, but in many ways, traveling the world can be the best kind of education. There are some things you just cannot learn in an institution, and you’ll get to know so much more than your friends who have never left their home towns.

You’ll Meet Amazing People

If you have trouble meeting people – or meeting the right kind of people for you – you’re bound to meet a lot of interesting and kind people in your travels. Single people have even been known to fall in love on the road. Or, if you’re attached, it could be a great way to deepen your relationship out on the road.

People often worry about coming across bad people during their travels, and that is a legitimate concern – but you’ll most likely meet far more good people than ones who want to take advantage of you.

It’s Self-Empowering

If you struggle with confidence, knowing yourself, deciding what you want out of life, or self-esteem, then traveling can help you build up these things – and more. It will shift your perspective, make you see things that you’re trying to figure out in your life in a new light, and it may even inspire some great new ideas and enhance your creativity.

Remote Income Opportunities Are Better Than Ever

Nowadays, there are more opportunities and ways to earn income remotely than there ever have been before. Accordingly, this means that better opportunities to work while traveling exist than ever before. Take advantage of these opportunities!

It’s Easier Than Ever to Stay Connected

Maybe you’re worried about feeling lonely, and missing people from home if you travel a lot. And that’s a legitimate concern – and a common experience for many frequent travelers.

At the same time, there are far more ways to stay in touch now than there were even just a few decades ago. And, you can visit home frequently.

Caveat: Never publicly post your location in real time, or share that information with people you don’t know and trust, for personal security reasons.

No One Can Ever Take That Experience Away From You

There are no guarantees in life, and sooner or later, something won’t go at all the way that you had hoped. That is true for everyone.

However, no matter what happens – if a career path or a relationship doesn’t work out, or you face health challenges, or other trials and tribulations – you’ll always have the memories of your traveling. And no one can ever take that away from you.

You’ll Always Have Awesome Stories

If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t know what to say in social situations, or you feel you’re not interesting enough, or you don’t feel like you have enough good stories; having some tales of travel will always give you something great to talk about.

Plus, this will help you meet a lot of like-minded people throughout your life.

What About the Challenges Younger People Face in Traveling?

Historically, a huge barrier to extended traveling for younger people has been a financial one. With the need to not only establish a career, work one’s way up, and increase one’s pay over time; traveling at will so early in life can often feel like a pipe dream.

Furthermore, many young people are still strongly influenced by their parents and families of origin, who may be (understandably) worried about the safety of their young adult kids in roaming around the world when they’re still pretty new to it, and may discourage such.

However, the benefits of traveling while you’re still young are so strong, and this is such a life-affirming and enjoyable activity for people, that it’s worth it to try and find a way, even if you have to overcome some barriers to do so.

Furthermore, with the ability to work and earn a living remotely being better than ever before, as mentioned previously; the financial barriers to traveling frequently are not nearly as large as they used to be. You might not be able to afford luxury accommodations right away, but there are ways to travel more economically, and you can just do that for now.

And there are ways you can look out for your safety, follow common personal security tips, and observe the rules of the road. Things can happen to people anywhere, and regardless of whether they’re at home or away, some common sense and listening to your own instincts tends to be your best protection.

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Thank you, dear readers, for reading, following, and sharing. Here’s to youth well spent. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” and subscribe, if you have not already.

Check out my other blog, too – World Class Hugs, at https://worldclasshugs.com.

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