Vamos a Paris, mi amor!

My neighborhood is full of public art in the form of murals and stencils, and I will admit I love it. I am a sucker for the aura it produces; that sense of community I feel by simply looking at it, regardless of the fact that I do not know my neighbor’s first names. There is a specific mural two blocks down that I witnessed in creation this past summer. There were kids from the neighborhood who donning t-shirts 5 times too big, paint covering their hands and faces. They were working with adults from the community center on a summer project. The mural they were painting was of a lake and well known world sites surrounding it. The sites included the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Pyramids, a set of snow-capped mountains, the Taj Mahal, and an airplane flying above the whole thing. The public art form is romantic in itself, but the content of the mural provides an example of our romanticized view of travel. In schools, media, and the termed ‘global society’, travel has become an asset. Study abroad is as regular in college, and even high school, curriculum as an internship or a job. Travel falls under the category of cultural experiences and many would claim that one is less cultured if they fail to travel. The themes of adventure, finding oneself, and unexpected love used to apply to novels, film, music, and day dreams. Now people have taken these romanticized epochs to heart and have written novels, films, and songs about their own life-altering experiences of travel. This romantic concept of travel is so culturally engrained in the United States it seems we would be incapable of admitting we did not ‘grow’ or ‘change’ exponentially on our travels. Should it be deemed a failure that we did not encounter a spontaneous love while in France, find adventure while in Egypt, or stardom in New York? These children painting the mural are surrounded by cultural references that say so. If worldly travel is the producer of these romantic circumstances what is the option for those who cannot or choose not to travel? It appears as if they are doomed to an unromantic life forever! I do not want to project a negative view of travel, I myself have studied abroad and feel lucky to have been able to do what I have, but it was hard. It was not full of amazing adventures every second, no one whisked me off to the coast, and tears were plentiful. These romantic ideals of travel can be dangerous in setting people up for disappointment, somewhat like post-Avatar depression. The projected view is one of immediate pleasure upon arrival to a foreign country—but people are living daily lives everywhere in the world as well. Capitalism has found a remedy to this in the form of tours, resorts, and recreations of entire films so one can live out their fantasy as created by said businesses and forget the rest of the world exists. It seems a bit ironic, doesn’t it?