So you say. Running around, seeing the entire world, drinking exotic
beer, bedding exotic women… it’s fun, for a time. It is, in the end, empty
and inconsequential. Being truely in love and raising a child is the single
most fantastic aspect of life. More time to enjoy the things in life that are
really important.

I had fun in college, but it got old. Real quick. While my friends were
still having fun after college, living in $hitty apartments with big incomes
and little responsibilities, I was getting married, buying a house and
planning a family. Now, I’m a few years “ahead” in the family thing, and
they’re gettign sick of being close to 30, in a $hitty apartment, with no
real fulfillment in their lives.

I couldn’t wait to graduate, get married, settle down and have kids.

It’s priorities. Lots of our friends have lived together for years, knowing
they were going to get married. they just spent all their extra income on
big trips all over, “enjoying life”. They didn’t understand that settleing
down and starting a family was how we enjoyed life.

I suspect that has a lot to do with why many Americans don’t travel that
much. It seems to me that many more people here are homebodies, and
are perfectly happy at or near home, and less so when they’re away.

Europeans take a lot mor elong vacations, whereas we take many small
ones. 3 day weekends, weekend trips, etc. My wife and I have only
gone on 2 or 3 week long vacations in the past 5 years. We get away at
least every month or so. 4 days in the mountains, a weekend at Myrtle
Beach, a BBQ at a friend’s house a few hours away, a few days hunting
in the woods, camping at the lake. there’s enough nearby, in driving
distance, to make big trips less important. Probably a contributing
factor as to why we drive so much.

thank you for the essay no one asked for 😮