Simple Little Things

After Giada on the Food Network, Samantha Brown from the Travel Channel has the job I most covet. She gets PAID to travel all over the world, stay in hotels--from the luxurious, to the funky--, and samples all sorts of gourmet and local cuisine.

I’ve always been drawn to her quirky energy and fun narration. Even when I was younger, my sister and I would watch Samantha’s first show, in which she traveled to various hotels in the U.S. There was always something so exciting in picturing ourselves staying in these fancy hotels, even though we were only kids.

This exhilaration stays with me years later, as I watch Brown’s new Asia series. Her bubbly and approachable personality makes you feel like you are getting your hands dirty with the locals—tonight she actually cooked pork on the side of the street with a woman in Hanoi (so cool!) I love to imagine myself walking the street markets, coolly narrating the scene, making friends with the locals, and getting paid for it at the same time!

While it is fun to daydream, I am not sure that I could actually go through some of her adventures. I definitely love to travel, but the biggest risks I am willing to take are with food. I still like to come back to a clean hotel with American TV

channels at night. The overnight train from Prague to Zurich I took on my European trip this summer is about as far as I will go when it comes to roughing it like a true traveler. Call mehigh maintenance, but I just call it having limits.

Studies show that people experience more excitement and pleasure in planning a vacation, than actually experiencing it. This makes some sense—the build up and the anticipation give you something to look forward to everyday. But how depressing! You spend all this time and money planning and traveling, only to not feel as happy or satisfied once you are actually there?

Perhaps this is a fault of our on-the-go American society. Everything is about efficiency, planning for the future, maximizing profits and time. We rarely take the time to soak in the present moment and enjoy the simple pleasures of everyday life—a glass of wine, a crisp breeze, a sunset. These simplicities are often overlooked by deadlines and to-do lists. I am certainly at fault for this. As I anxiously search for jobs and worry about my future, I am unable to enjoy the luxury of doing absolutely nothing everyday (everyone tells me to enjoy it now, because this will never happen again).

Unfortunately I am not Giada or Sam Brown, and very few of us are lucky enough to have a career that allows us to be paid to enjoy life’s pleasures. But maybe--if even for a minute a day--we can all rebel against the American work ethic that is so engrained in our psyche, and savor something so wholly in that moment (a good cup of coffee, an old song on the radio) we can all pretend we’re hosts on our own travel or cooking show.