Just go

There's a feel-good piece floating around on the Internet on why people should travel while they're young. Basically, the piece dishes out advice about how travel cultivates compassion and heightens an appreciation for other cultures. While I heartily agree with both the conclusion and the rationale offered to support that conclusion, I also have my own, more prosaic reasons for embarking on a trip while in the flower of youth that are just as compelling.

For instance, I believe we should all travel young because when you're young, you're not yet finicky. Young people can bear the most ridiculous travel circumstances, sleep anywhere where it's relatively flat (couch, futon, airport terminal chairs, and yes, even the floor) and eat anything faintly edible.

There is none of that acquired distaste for fast food burgers and hotdogs, or falafels and shawarma. None of that hankering for fine wines or gourmet desserts. It's not how many Michelin stars adorn that menu, it's all about breathing the air of a different clime, looking around and enjoying the million subtle differences of your surroundings, and just absorbing anything and everything around you, maybe while crunching on insects and dried meat.

Unfortunately, aging has a habit of changing one's persona. Suddenly, we can't sleep unless the mattress is exactly so. We can't bathe unless there's hot running water. We can't eat unless all the bacteria has been irradiated out of existence. When one is young, there's really none of these issues to deal with. Enjoy.

Second, there's the matter of energy. While young, you can do anything and everything. Walk sixty Manhattan blocks to downtown, then trudge across Cental Park to have dinner at a friend's place, and then tramp another sixty blocks uptown before getting home? What's the big deal there? But now, trust me, it's a cab if you have the cash, or at least the subway, if you're feeling poor.

And the places you can get to if you're still awake at 2:00 in the morning! So many underground clubs or instant poetry reading sessions or voguing balls you only hear about that very same day. There's energy to dance the night and the morning away, have brunch, sleep a couple of hours, and then dance again at an afternoon tea party.

These days? It's all about tumbling into bed before midnight. Otherwise, the eyebags are enormous, and a late night out means the next day is a complete waste, as one recovers from fatigue and lack of sleep.

Third, is the impatience. Older travelers feel the waste of time in lining up. In the mode of transportation (Why buy a Eurail pass if one can afford to fly?). In not being served with alacrity by that chatty barista (Must you make small talk with the customer at the head of the line when the line is ten deep?)

I used to not mind traveling at least an hour and a half via train, ferry, and then bus, to my rented room at Staten Island. Or taking the R Train to Brooklyn to the very last stop to visit my grandmother. At least, I was in New York, center of the universe. Now, my sister can't get me to take the bridge and tunnel (shudder).

Young people, on the other hand, have incredible reservoirs of patience. They can queue for hours to get into a museum. Suffer three hours for the one hour Rihanna concert to finally start. Take a Greyhound bus to travel coast to coast. Believe me, patience is crucial to a vacation enjoyed.

Then, there's the health issue. When one is old, so many restrictions suddenly rear up and slam the doors shut on a million possible adventures. No banana boating. Too risky. No roller coaster. Bad for your heart. No jungle trekking. Will ruin the investment in beauty products and dermatological treatments. And guess who's watching all that sugar and cholesterol.

None of these considerations, thankfully, factor into a young traveler's decision to just do it. It's all about the fun, the thrill, the experience. The joie de vivre, even though they don't know it as that yet.

Lastly, if you're broke after that ten country, six week tour, don't worry. You have the rest of your life to collect wrinkles and worries about financial and job security. Meanwhile, travel. Travel, before that crabby, whiney old fogey that you're bound to become, becomes. You won't regret it.