“You’re so lucky” they say, maybe they just don’t understand the definition of luck – the idea that our choice to travel was one that was by chance and not of our own actions.
It’s actually an insult if you think about it, telling me that I am not capable of choosing, or making this path of travel on my own rather, it just happen to fall into my lap.
Choosing to travel long term requires way too many sacrifices to be able to wrap it all up in a word like luck. My choice to travel is a meticulous, well thought out, purposeful, and deliberate decision made by yours truly. So think twice before you open your mouth and say, “You are soo lucky” because the truth is, I am busting my butt trying to live my dream.
In case that was not enough to let you know that I am not “lucky”, here are 25 reasons why we, backpackers are some of the unluckiest people on earth!
1. We are constantly getting scammed by people who think of us as walking money bags.
2. We have to fight over street food with stray dogs.
3. We can never be sure about our food because each bite could lead to food poisoning.
4. We have to take ten hour bus rides to the next town because flying is out of budget.
5. We have the same conversation over and over again. Oh, what did you say your favorite country was?
6. We have to carry our life on our backs.
7. We have to take cold showers and can’t flush our poopy toilet paper down the toilet.
8. We have to learn new languages because English is not really a universal language.
9. We have to travel to different countries just to find happiness.
10. We constantly have to justify why we are traveling the world instead of working a nine-to-five.
11. We have to sleep in dorm rooms with complete strangers who fart and snore.
12. We have to poison our skin with mosquito repellent or risk getting malaria or dengue.
13. We can never make any plans because shit happens all the time.
14. We have to wear the same stained clothes over and over again.
15. We have to think about every dollar we spend because every dollar we spend brings us that much closer to having to work again.
16. We have to bargain even with poor people. Because, you know, every penny counts.
17. We can’t visit any of the seven wonders of the world without thousands of other travelers ruining the perfect picture.
18. We have to walk around with a huge backpack for hours just to find the perfe… I mean cheapest hostel.
19. We have to superglue our sandals whenever they are broken.
20. We have to watch our favorite TV shows on our phone with headphones on.
21. We have to eat pasta more often than we care to.
22. We have to bring toilet paper everywhere we go because finding toilets with paper is considered luxury.
23. We constantly have to worry about what would happen if we should die while traveling, since are parents, friends and random strangers are always asking us this.
24. We have to learn something new all the time… and here we thought we graduated from school already.
25. We constantly have to listen to people tell us how lucky we are… when clearly you know how unlucky we are!!
26. And of course, the main reason we are unlucky is because being lucky would mean we didn’t choose this life, it chose us!
In case you still believe that we are lucky, I will leave you with this quote: “We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?” -Jean Cocteau
Disclaimer: This post and the title is meant to be sarcastic and because some people didn’t or won’t get it, we added this disclaimer… Clearly backpackers aren’t the unluckiest people on earth… we just aren’t lucky!
I so love this list! Never really thought about some of those things with backpackers. Enjoying your blog – keep up the great work!
Thanks! Glad you like it :)
I wish people were able to understand our first-world problems. :P
Lol… The struggle is real ;)
Number 7 is my favourite! I will never get used to a poopy bin! But hey….at least in Mexico we have proper toilets instead of squat ones…they are my biggest fear when we get to Asia!