It dawned on me a bit further down the road that my assumed definition was a bit off.
And that I had actually been backpacking for years without realizing it.
(Talk about an ego boost! I felt pretty cool for a few minutes.)
When you think of backpacking, what mental image do you get? Are you in my camp, with the unshaven mountainmen and their weathered packs, or do you see a sunburned college freshman on summer break trying to hitchhike across Europe with their 45L Osprey and Chacos?
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| Or maybe your mental image is a rag-tag group from the US, Chile, Uruguay, and Holland carrying enough boxed wine for a weekend... Or maybe that's this image. |
A relatively new term, "backpacker" and "backpacking" are not in official dictionaries yet, but thankfully Urban Dictionary and Google have some wisdom to share.
Backpacking: "Traveling around with your backpack on your back."
Backpacker: "A person who travels or hikes carrying their belonging in a backpack."
As it turns out, I've been "backpacking" since I was about 12: all those family road trips, college weekend getaways, spontaneous visits to the parents'... And it had nothing to do with dehydrated biscuits or sunburned hitchhiking. (Or boxed wine, unfortunately. Thanks for everything, Chile and your cheap, delicious wine!)
After a few months of using the label proudly, however, I started feeling that this definition of backpacking really does not do justice to my form of traveling. Because for serial backpackers, it's not just a method of carrying our stuff - or lack thereof.
It's an ideology - a lifestyle.
Last week, as I prepared for a panel discussion of backpacking - in which the panel consisted of me, myself, and I - I asked me and myself how we should define "backpacking." (Myself responded by asked me and I the same question again, but in Portuguese..) How could I sum up my entire lifestyle and the ideology that inspires it in a few simple words? (Words I know in Portuguese, no less..)
After much self-examination, typing and erasing, I came up with the following definition:
"Going to new places and spontaneously doing new things that scare you, knowing that the excitement, experience, and knowledge you are gaining are worth any potential discomfort, risk, and sacrifice. With your stuff in a backpack, naturally."
(A terrible translation would go something like... Indo por outros lados, fazendo coisas novas espontaneamente que te deixa com medo, com certeza que a empolgação, experiencia e conhecimento que você ganha valem tudo o desconforto, risco e sacrificio. Levando as coisas na mochila.." Portuguese-speaking readers, please forgive my feeble attempts!)
Where did I get that? Let's take it phrase by phrase.
"Going new places..."
The whole reason we backpack is to explore. You can backpack in the same place your entire life if you like, but the goal is generally to step out of the ordinary and into the new.
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| If you get lucky - or step far enough out of your ordinary - you might encounter an enchanted place where the Andes come alive - where the wind sings you to sleep, the clouds wrap you in icy warmth, the rocks watch over you at night, and the grass wakes you...wispering the heart-wrenching stories of centuries of Incan lives, lived and lost. |
"...spontaneously doing new things..."
Backpacks leave your hands free.
I mainly take advantage of this to scroll through cheap-flight apps and practice whichever language Doulingo suggests for the day.
But seriously.
Although for many of us, our backpacks weigh more than we do, take half a day to pack and 15 minutes to situate so we can walk without collapsing, (I may or may not be speaking from personal experience here...) the idea is that we can be ready for anything and everything in little time and with minimal effort or planning.
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| Hands-free traveling FTW! |
"...that scare you..."
This is a bit of a niche in the backpacking community. It is entirely possible to backpack without ever attempting anything that scares you.
But the beauty of being ready to leave at a moment's notice is that you can do anything you want and never see any of the witnesses again. You think I'm being sarcastic? The things no one you will ever meet have seen would tell you I am entirely serious right now.
The perfect time to try things you never had the courage to try before.
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| Guess who was scared as sh!t to get up there and try to sing Adele? |
"...knowing that the excitement, experience, and knowledge you are gaining..."
There is no thrill like knowing you are the first white person to ever attend an annual local event, there are no words for the love you feel when you show up in a new place and a total stranger hugs you simply because you are a fellow solo traveler, and there is no teacher like the real world - a world more real than you can possibly imagine rolling your cushy suitcase along the air-conditioned and stylishly decorated hallways of LAX or Incheon (International Airports).
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| It's not about the impression you leave, it's about the life you gain from each new experience, each new place. |
"...are worth any potential discomfort, risk, and sacrifice..."
Abreviated list of potential discomforts, risks, and sacrifices:
- no bed to call your own
- mosquitos
- not liking the local food
- travelers' diarrhea (It's as bad as it sounds.)
- public restrooms (Not even going to get into it.)
- missing important events at home
- running out of money
- going the wrong direction on a bus/metro line
- subsequently being more lost than you even knew was possible
- not having WiFi to get you unlost
- inability to communicate with the people around you (to get unlost, or for any other purpose)
- terrible internet connections
- being sick in a hostel (the worst, THE WORST)
- oppressive heat
- unusual and over-powering smells
- misunderstandings with people you left behind
- meeting soul friends ... and saying goodbye the next day
- giant cockroaches (seriously, Brasil?!)
- dehydration - because who knows what water you can drink safely?
I bet you can't guess how I know about those things...
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| It's an oddly bittersweet experience to leave someone behind, and leave a giant piece of your heart with them. |
"With your stuff in a backpack, naturally."
About 6 years ago I was sitting in a dorm room with one of the coolest friends, and he said something that inspired me more than I could begin to realize in the moment: "By the time I graduate, I want to be able to fit all of my stuff into this trunk." (Queue motion at the black, hard plastic, sticker-covered trunk set up as a dinner table between us.)
My exact thought: "Impossible."
For me, anyway.
(Time has yet to tell if it is possible for him. Also, if you're reading this...you know who you are. Thank you. So much. Love always!)
But I was wrong.
Anything is possible.
Because here I am, my life in my giant blue backpack, risking all of that discomfort and making all of those sacrifices, because, well... Who hasn't dreamt of giving it all up to meet soul friends, to hear the Andes' stories, and to see the sun sink into the Pacific waves only to rise from the Atlantic swells?
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