Are Travel Careers a Dead End Road?

All throughout life, we see and hear famous people on the radio and television. The media loves to promote and be involved with celebrities. This glorification of celebrities has led to many Americans desiring to experience fame or wealth. With modern technology, it is no wonder that celebrities can be found on the Internet, television, and the radio at any given moment in time. This day to day glorification has led many people to pursue a career that requires a great deal of travel. However, once you have achieved travelling all over the world, one must consider what comes next. (Partenheimer)

There are several steps or "causes" that lead to a person into a travel career and eventually that travel life must come to an end. I like to refer to these steps as "stacking" up on top of each other until there's no backing out at the end. Each step can be defined and explains how inevitably the final outcome becomes needing to end a travel career.

Fame and fortune is what most people think of when talking about celebrities. This can be exciting to think about and there are many stories of overnight successes that cause people to think that it is easy to achieve. When imagining what a celebrity life is like, you think of travelling the world, first class accommodations, people you don't know recognizing you, and getting anything you want. Most people do not understand the sacrifices that go along with this social status. This leads me to cause "A".

As a teenager trying to figure out what to do in life, a career that requires you to travel the world and experience the same things that celebrities do can sound appealing. The thought of dreams coming true is exciting to human emotion. Everyone loves the thoughts of a better life. If a person just looks at the surface facts they may see that selecting a career that requires travel can also lead to experiencing the type of treatment that celebrities get. Once a person has started this travel career, it is nice to see new places and faces on a daily bases and even make a phone call to get room service delivered directly to your door. Even though we already have the ability to make a phone call and get food delivered to our front door at our house, somehow it is extra special when it happens away from home. It is a great feeling to experience a new place which leads to wanting to travel more and more.

Next, there is cause "B". Once a person has a steady career in travel, they can make a fairly good amount of money compared to the average household. This higher income will set the bar for their life. Once a higher lifestyle or status of living is experienced, people feel that they must maintain this income status therefore leading to the need to stay in the travel career and stay gone from home. (Bureau)

Cause "C" is in direct relation to cause "B". Cause "C" is the human companionship factor. One issue with travel careers is that most of the time you are not with a significant other during your travels. Perhaps your "better half" is back in your home town, or perhaps you do not have a serious personal relationship yet. Either way, being without a personal life companion can have a heavy toll on your emotions. This will lead a person to want to "settle down" at some point, possibly have a family, marriage, children, or even a dog.

Since most people want a personal relationship with someone special, travelling can add to the difficulty in maintaining any personal relationship. According to Single Adult Ministries Larry Burkett, distance relationships often do not work out due the strain of being apart. There are many issues that lead to the demise of a distance relationship. For example, there often is a trust issue that takes years for a couple to overcome. Next is that people often have the desire to be a parent. If you are travelling, it is difficult for someone to be a good parent to their kids. According to leading psychiatrist Brooks Benson, when a parent is missing from the home, regardless of the reason, it has a great toll on the children's physical and mental health (455).

Once a person is used to this lifestyle and income, it may be difficult to find local work that pays the same money with little experience as all of the persons experience has been in a travel career. The transition can be long and difficult but the end reward proof is with the children who have a better rounded personality, moral value, and family structure.

Works Cited

Benson BA, Brooks WT. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 21 Sep 2008. 454-8. Review.

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Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-

09 Edition. Musicians, Singers, and Related Workers. 11 Oct 2008.

Burkett, Larry. "Single-Parent Statistics." Assemblies of God USA. 01 Aug 2006. Single Adult

Ministries. 11 Oct 2008

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Partenheimer, David. American Psychological Association. 25 June 2003. Journal of Family

Psychology. 18 Oct 2008. http://www.apa.org/releases/relocation.html>

Rolett, Parker A., John Douglass. Association for Health Services Research. Meeting.

Abstr Book Assoc Health Serv Res Meet. 1999; 16: 205-6. 12 Oct 2008.