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Why You Need a Vacation From Your Relationship
Allow wanderlust, rather than your partner, to be your travel buddy
I’m writing this from atop a futon in New Orleans that I’ve been paying $26 a night to sleep on. I’ve spent the last two days people-watching in the French Quarter, hiking through swampy state parks, and sipping drinks named after both natural and human-made disasters.
At a seafood stand in a rural area, I approached a couple that reminded me of my parents. I had some questions about my walking route that only a local would know, and they looked like people I could trust with the truth that I was traveling alone.
Predictably, the husband’s jaw dropped. He wasted no time dispensing fatherly advice. “Stay on the path. Don’t talk to people. And be aware of your surroundings, hon,” he said, in a near-verbatim echo of my own dad.
But the wife gave her husband some side-eye and told me she completely understood. “If you travel alone, you don’t have to ask anyone what you want to do,” she said. “You just go and do it.” Then she made me promise I’d try the Hurricane.
This stranger had hit exactly on why I was in New Orleans — to do what I wanted, when I wanted, without taking anybody else into account. I wonder how many long-term relationships would be…
