Growing up, everyone would tell me that I should stop traveling at the rate I was going. I would pack my bags and go traveling every month. These trips were both local and international, and now that I look back, I realize I have enjoyed my local trips more than the international ones. The people you travel with form a major part of your travel memories.

One of the reasons people advised me to travel less was so that I could save money and use it to travel more when I was older. I never agreed with that advice. To me, as you grow older, you might be able to travel more because you have more free time and, I assume, more money, but your energy levels go down. If you managed to do ten things in your 20s, traveling in your 30s would reduce the number of things you could do to six or seven.

Was it important to see all ten things in your 20s? I am not sure. Am I happy seeing the six places that I see now? Yes. But I definitely see the change in energy levels, and I want to go back and thank my twenty-year-old self for packing those bags and heading out as often as he did. With more responsibilities now, the number of places I visit has gone down, and so have the things I do when I am at those places.

I woke up yesterday at 4 AM, really excited to see a place in Berlin. My friend suggested that instead of going there at 10 PM, we go at 4 AM, and I agreed. However, the 4 AM version of me had different plans and went back to bed, quoting a famous Bollywood dialogue to my friend:

“Life Mein Jitna bhi Try Karo, kuch na kuch toh chootega hi.” (No matter how much you try, you will miss out on something.)