The Art of Travel
The past week was on of the most amazing trips I’ve had and it was supposedly for work. For the second time, our annual conference One Airbnb brought almost every employee in the company from all around the World together in San Francisco. That alone is a bold proposition, but what made the experience truly amazing were the people I met.
Our days started off with actual work and then transitioned into a massive conference in the afternoons which usually lead into a swarm of us converging on restaurants and bars in the evenings. The speakers we listened to for four to five hours each afternoon ranged from the company’s founders, to department leads, to some special guests like Allain De Botton – author of The Art of Travel. It was during De Botton’s presentation that I found the words to explain why my trip felt so magical.
De Botton advocates for travel as a form of psychological treatment; someone goes somewhere that facilitates experiences outside of their regular life. Through this extraordinary experience, they (possibly and ideally) return from their vacation transformed in some way. The concept is a bit abstract, but it’s similar to the “opposites attract” trope we are more familiar with.
Like many endurance athletes, I nurture a lot of conservative and introverted tendencies. Don’t go out after work, go home and ride the trainer. Don’t drink too much, it dehydrates you. Don’t stay out late, you have to wake up at 8 on a Saturday morning and go for a 5 hour ride. This is the way I choose to live my life because I like to race bikes and I like to win; so to succeed in the sport I have to sacrifice other aspects of my life. This Work/Life/Sport balance can cause a lot of stress for amateur athletes.
One of the examples of a potentially transformative trip De Botton gave during his presentation was a family man from Iceland going to Brazil. In this hot and steamy climate, the responsible Nord would get a taste of life he did not normally indulge in. I think this theory explains why I had such an amazing time in San Francisco. In fact, a group of employees from our Brazil office helped to draw me out a couple of the nights!
The week before, I rode the trainer three nights of the week and rode 9 hours over the weekend. This is what I choose to do and I honestly enjoy the stoic pursuit of an athletic life. But to go from that to a week of debauchery, like black ink splashed on white paper, makes each experience stand out vividly. It might have been when I was crowd surfing across the stage or when we when I was pressed chest to chest dancing with my coworkers from around the world, but I feel now a bit of De Botton’s transformation. I’ll mostly resume my normal habits when I return home, but the splash of black will not wash away easily.
*I also did some nice bike rides, cuz you know that’s what I do.