PS: I do have a passport, just without any stamps.

I love your article and agree 100%! I am so tired of my friends and family giving me those lame excuses of why they don’t travel abroad. #1 Don’t have money like you. #2 I don’t have anyone to travel with…:( #3 We have everything right here in the USA. These excuses actually anger me, and I can not believe educated enlightened people actually say these things! We just returned from our 6 month Round the World Trip and it was the best thing we ever did! We are both physicians, so we had every excuse in the world to not go, but we didn’t let it hold us back. We quit our jobs, sold everything just like you, and it changed our lives so much that we are moving abroad:)

I disagree with a couple of comments. Do not kid yourself people, if you stay in the states all of your life, you are missing out! The USA contains roughly 5% of the world’s population, do you really believe that 95% of the world has nothing to offer? That u can’t learn something from other people’s way of life? You are sadly mistaken if you do. The USA is sterile and safe, we think we are individualists, but we really aren’t; we conform to whatever group we fit into. My doctor friends join country clubs and drive Mercedes. My athlete/ construction friends go to local bars and drive trucks, etc., etc… Our culture suffers from it’s insular nature. We do not take criticism well nor do we take other countries’ advice well, and that means we do not improve or grow. A stagnant culture will eventually fail! I find that the deepest, most interesting people, most genuine people are folks who travel. Not just because they travel, but because they are introspective, and try to relate themselves to the world around them. Saying you are “just wired different” is another lame excuse….

ps-Only 18% of US adults have passports (official)

I listen to my friends talk about how they long to return to England, to Spain, or too Sweden, and I can't get my head around it. For me, those places were nice places to spend maybe a day or two, but they are nothing with what the US has to offer.

I think that maybe Americans (at least American students) talk so much about the greatness of being abroad because they have not yet experienced what their own country has to offer. Most college students go to college in their own state or at least their own region. However, the differences in culture, climate, and general environment differ so greatly within our own nation that it almost feels at time like one is in a different country.

That is my opinion. Great article by the way.

Thanks! Well you never know…this blog may just well make a comeback. I just need a little break so that I can get my life organized. Subscribe to the blog and you'll get a notice whenever I start it up again! Might take a couple of months…

Thanks for reading and enjoy your trip to Norway and Poland. Poland is actually one of my favorite countries…the people are so friendly and it's has such a fascinating history!

There are interesting points of view in the comments to this article, well done for writing something so thought provoking.

BTW, sad to read that you are ending this blog, I will miss it!

– Bri, 28 year old Australian currently saving to go to Norway and Poland next month and Thailand next March