Don't Wait Until Your Golden Years

A traveller! By my faith, you have great reason to be sad: 

I fear you have sold your own lands to see other men's; 

then, to have seen much and to have nothing, 

is to have rich eyes and poor hands.

- Rosalind, As You Like It

Shakespeare might not have approved of traveling but it has always been one of the most important things to me. I love seeing other cultures, learning other languages, trying new foods - I think it improves you as a person and makes you appreciate your life more. In some ways, I'm dreading going back to the United States after my contract ends and getting a career where I can't travel often.

Also, I read and hear so much recently about 'peak oil' that I think maybe I shouldn't waste time if I want to see the world. If you haven't heard much about this, my layman's understanding is this: there isn't that much more oil to be discovered in the world and what we have found is running out rapidly. Once we hit 'peak oil,' it will afterward become increasingly difficult and costly to extract oil. In fact, we'll never run out of oil, but it will eventually become more expensive to extract than it's worth.

Many people think we'll hit peak oil in the next 10 years, if we haven't already. There was a very interesting documentary on all of this, A Crude Awakening. Or, you can go to NPR (the only thing I really believe in religiously).

When we do actually run out of oil, economies will collapse, massive famine and poverty will ensue, etc. But on an extremely myopic and self-centered level, all this makes me think that I need to travel now. Unlike our parent's generation, there won't be any waiting 'til our Golden Years for us.