We often encounters the assumption that traveling is merely an extended holiday. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the state of transience.

Holidays are an escape from responsibility; travel is the assumption of total accountability.

In the industry of tourism, one is a consumer. The client delegates security, logistics, and comfort to a centralized provider—the hotel, the tour operator, the "All-Inclusive" interface, recommendations on Instagram or Youtube videos. It is a passive state designed to rest the mind by delegating the actual responsibility.

Traveling, on the other hand, is a full-time job.

Consider the following exchange during a solo transit through Malaysia. After three days of persistent insomnia, a friend and I had the following conversation.

Aïda
How are you?
Nico
Insomnias… 3rd day.
Aïda
Why don’t you take a pill? This situation is crazy, you need to sleep or you will fall sick.
Nico
I’m in Malaysia. I don’t trust pills here since I’m a foreigner… and alone. Security is more important than an uncontrolled sleeping period.
Aïda
Right.

This is the essence of what I call operational readiness.

When I travel, I am my own bodyguard. I cannot afford the luxury of an uncontrolled state when the external environment is unknown and the support systems are absent. I must manage my own vulnerability with the same rigor one applies to a mission-critical system.

Sleep, nutrition, and safety are not "vacation items"; they are resources and maintenance.

Travelling is a full time job

We all took holidays to rest. We all understand that. Travels, on the other hand, is about experiencing life at its most unfiltered. This requires a constant evaluation of the context, anticipation and to vigilant. Even on fun times responsability is in a corner of my head.

Travel is not about finding yourself. It is about maintaining yourself while exposing yourself to the unknown, learn, grow and adapt. They are many ways to "find yourself" and travelling is a good way to do it. But it is not the only way.

The traveler must navigate shifting legal frameworks, cultural nuances, and the persistent presence of the unknown. There is no manager to call, no help desk for the loss of a passport or a medical emergency in a non-neutral territory.

Sovereignty is the baseline.

If one is not prepared to own his own survival, he's better suited for the holiday. True travel is the pursuit of legitimate experience, and legitimacy requires the cost of vigilance.