After months of lingering in so many travel websites, blogs, travel posts and travelogues, I've realised that it is true.
No one cares about your travel stories that much.
I guess I learned it after so many daily exposure with those sites. I read that quote sometime ago, but at that time, I thought "Travel has been my number one passion, of course I wouldn't be bored by it!". But I had a chance to go much deeper than that. I read travel stories everyday for works, I read and saw hundreds of various places, I read about what they did, what they experienced, tips & tricks, advises, videos and such. I followed Matador, Lonely Planet, 360', and many other travel blogs available.
But it came to a point, I ask myself.
Does it matter? What you do, you experience, you see? Like what this guy said, travel is like a situational humor, you need to be there to experience & understand it. Or you can read here, if you have the patient and if you don't, I extracted a bit of the essay for you :
Most people had one or two polite questions, namely "You're back, how was it?" or "What was your favourite place?" But beyond that, they didn't have a whole lot to say or ask.It's understandable. We are self-absorbed human beings. We spend most of our time dwelling on ourselves and our own supposedly unique issues. Am I any different?Maybe it's self-centred of me to want others to share in my excitement over our year of adventure. I want to scream, "I am not the same person I was before I left!" Doesn't anybody get that? No, they don't. Up the steps of acceptance and maturity I reluctantly trudge.
It started with the thought of sharing my experience, it went on with the detailed part of helping people with informations *in case other people are planning to go there too. And it became an obsession, I count places that I went to *everybody does that , I shared hundreds of pictures in Facebook! *oh, I am sorry for my insensitive behaviour, I told stories to people about how this and that *brag brag brag.
And after I read an article about how people actually don't care and many more encounters with travel sites, it hit me hard! It is true. We are all too self-absorbed!
I had a conversation with my brother once, about this. And I remember telling him :
I read it somewhere, that actually people don't care about your travel stories. Your experiences and interesting encounters, thousands of pictures or videos. Unless they are there too.
And I keep reminding myself that, afterwards. I share some pictures that I loved, 10 tips & advises to be remembered, and personal little encounters that touched my heart along that trip.
Just like writing a blog, I keep on asking myself, do people care what I write, share, brag, or analyze ? Most probably not.
In essense to that, I make this like a personal journal, a reminder to myself and people who want to be reminded by this.
*
P/S : People should write blogs like this.
I love her writings + picture of places! She makes places look so special and personal and I don't mind reading her long long posts.
where is this? (referring to picture)
ReplyDeleteBndr Tasik Selatan :)
ReplyDeleteazreen, salam
ReplyDeletei think there's a lot of people who care; proof: the internet is still expanding with the ever growing number of people sharing stories of words and images
ps: lama x dgr kabar :D :D
don't be so disheartened. They are people who would benefit and there are those who would like to read/more of your experience. That being said, we cannot force people to see what we want to see.
ReplyDeleteIf I have the liberty to give an anology in a post, I would say experience is like a torch. You might come back with a burning torch and some people would not care, it's the day anyway. But that doesnt mean you have to wave and swing the torch to make people notice. Dangerous and to some people, annoying. But come dark, the torch might be indispensable to some.
So as above, some people might benefit from your retelling your adventure, which is most probably yourself. Because for me, I wrote the book reviews because I sometimes forget what I read. And I also enjoy reading the short stories I wrote once in a while.(that sound a bit narcist, so I'd better stop)
Salam Waz, it's been a while! :D
ReplyDeleteIn my last line of this writing I wrote : A reminder to myself and people who want to be reminded by this. Yes, I know there are people who care to read those things! :D
Heyy Pech from the other blog, you've managed to find me here! :D
This writing is supposed to remind myself to not be a narcist. It's kind of like a reminder. I am definitely fine about the fact that people read what I write or not. Aha. I know how much I love to babble :D