Travel Is Supposed to Be Hard Work

That’s what the word used to mean.

Photo by Simon English on Unsplash

The word “travel” has an interesting origin. It comes from the old English travailen, from the old French travail, meaning “work, labor, toil, suffering or painful effort, trouble; arduous journey”.

It can be traced further back to Latin roots, including the word tripaliare — “to torture”.

A long trip used to mean weeks, or months, of discomfort and danger, so it’s easy to see why the word has the history it does. Of course, with the invention of cars, trains, and airplanes, travel doesn’t have to mean suffering anymore. A modern definition is “to move or go from one place to another”.

It’s natural to take the path of least resistance, so why not go the easy way every time? Well, arduous journeys can come with certain side benefits:

• Being forced to adapt to unfamiliar and uncomfortable situations can push us beyond our limitations, revealing capabilities we didn’t know we had.
• Spending days and weeks with no objective but to move forward can put us in meditative states that produce valuable insights.
• Suffering for a time can give us a reference point that makes our normal lifestyle feel easy by comparison, readjusting our comfort zone.