flâneur

I'm not running away - Kelly’s Newsletter

kellyhliu.substack.com · 1,686 words · saved by 1 readers

In college, I ran away from MIT each winter to teach science abroad. 2 years into working, I escaped the San Francisco tech life and moved to New Zealand. After leaving my second job, I disappeared into the Sierras to go on a one month hike. The problem was, travel was not a long term solution. It didn’t matter how much I would experience out there, the same problems would await me when I returned. I came to think of travel as naive, even irresponsible, because in the end, it solved nothing. In 2020, I swore that I would not run away again. I’d stay where I was and face things head on. Yet, when I lost my job this past March, I couldn’t help but run once more. I thought this trip would just be another fantastical escape, but this time, something different happened. I came back with a different sense of self — and that newfound self is still here. In all of my previous travels, I never left home without some sort of crutch. I’d be part of a program, have a travel buddy, or have already

I’ve always thought of travel as the easy way out. In college, I ran away from MIT each winter to teach science abroad. 2 years into working, I escaped the San Francisco tech life and moved to New Zealand. After leaving my second job, I disappeared into the Sierras to go on a one month hike. The problem was, travel was not a long term solution. It didn’t matter how much I would experience out there, the same problems would await me when I returned. I came to think of travel as naive, even irresponsible, because in the end, it solved nothing. In 2020, I swore that I would not run away…

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