I was looking over my interview with Rolf Potts and thinking about how he talks about the false distinction travelers make among themselves. How we compete to prove who’s a better traveler or how we aren’t like “the tourists.” And it got me thinking. In what is only a make believe competition, you see many travelers on the road trying to prove their status and superiority by talking about how much longer they’ve been on the road, where they’ve been, or by emphasizing the number of local buses they have taken. But let me tell you another travel secret- all travelers are created equal. While I’d rather take advice from someone who has been traveling for 10 years over someone who left yesterday, the older traveler (and Rolf would probably agree) is no “better” a traveler than the younger traveler. You are not a better traveler simply because: “You’ve been traveling for over a two years!” Really?

Read the original here All Travelers are Created Equal