A Perfect Getaway

It’s not only in summer that many people plan to go away somewhere. They need it anytime, they’ll say. To get away from it all, for a breather, to recharge vital energies. But – pardon my observation – there are people who go on vacation to far away places just so that they can tell others they’ve been there. They like to talk about having been to Timbuktu or God-knows-where, except their own country or province or the neighboring towns.

These people think that a vacation simply means traveling to get someplace. But, in fact, what is really more important is how the getaway enriches the traveler at the personal level. How does it enhance the traveler’s being, aside from simply having stories to later impress others with? Seldom do we hear about the extreme frugality that had to be observed in order to save for a trip or the terrible things that happened during a jaunt.

On the other hand, people who have no means of going anywhere for a vacation have a ready alibi: Vacation tends to make them sleep and eat too much, which is not good for both their health and their figure. But, come on, those who sleep and eat too much while out on vacation also sleep and eat too much anywhere else whenever they can.

And there are yet those who enjoy planning a vacation more than they do enjoy going on one. They talk about it for a long time, and then begin to pack more things and stuff than they can ever use during the whole planned trip. Then, as soon as they finally get to their destination, they immediately start planning about the trip back home.

In general, a vacation often sounds like a better idea than a vacation usually turn out to be.  

Last year my friend, who’s a manager at a multinational corporation, excitedly announced that he was going on a company-paid two-week vacation with his family. The destination was Hongkong.

To my surprise, hardly a week after the much-anticipated departure, I got a call from him. My friend was back in town. His wife and kids were to follow him home a day or two after.

The supposed getaway didn’t work. In their first two days there, my friend was hounded by calls from his sales people in the field. He switched off his phone. But then the more he worried about how his people would do out here if he were unavailable.

This is often the case with any family that goes out on a holiday trip. The parents are there, and so are the kids – it’s the same circle. My friend’s wife was continuously checking on the kids, like she always does, to the annoyance of the teenagers. And my friend was preoccupied with job concerns, as usual, and had too little time to have fun with the family. Only the location changed, the atmosphere was all the same as at home.

Sometimes we feel so fed up and exhausted with all the things we’re doing and we crave for some time off. In such instances, we think that we would be all refreshed and be like new if we would take a real good break.

I don’t know with the others, but that’s just not the case with me. Many times I had stopped, put everything down, and just idled my time away. But when I returned to my usual grinds, I felt like the same old, weary me all over again.

It seems that the thing many of us need to get away from for a real good rest is impossible. We need to get away from ourselves. We need to temporarily unload the same thoughts, the same plans and the same cares that we carry every single day of our lives.

There are times when I get sick and tired of being so much like the person I’ve always been for as long as I can remember. I’m not a vile person. In fact, my little nephews and nieces would swear that I’m the best uncle there is.

But if I can only stop being myself for one day, or even for a few hours, perhaps I can look over my life more objectively. Maybe I can view the world in a whole new, positive way. And how refreshing that must be!

By “stop being myself for one day,” I don’t mean simply getting over the pressure of having to keep up with everything so that the world may not pass me by, but in not caring whether it does or not.

Yet there’s no place you can go to get away from being you. You carry yourself with you everywhere, without you having to decide whether or not you want to tag yourself along. In the first place, you were not even part of the very decision that set up this system.

I am not complaining, just doing some alternative, wishful thinking. In the meantime, let’s all go on believing that there’s always a place out there to escape to from the hustle and bustle of living. And that all the efforts and expenses required for going there is worth it.

After all, what we believe in becomes our reality. Our experience of life follows the kind of beliefs we embrace. It matters little whether or not the thing we seek actually exists.