Draft #2 cover letter

Here, I have shifted the focus of the piece to better relate to what I have been reading in
Scott Stillman’s book I Don’t Want to Grow Up: Life Liberty, and Happiness Without a Career
because I believe that reading it has helped me to significantly reiterate what about this
project I cared most about. I have restructured the thesis and overall structure of the essay
a little bit but I feel like it still flows very well and helps to present a concise, smooth
reading experience that is still extremely relevant to the other aspects of my Capstone
project; I appreciate that this is the kind of project where we are able to make such kinds of
pivots to discuss a topic we care about. The process of drafting the piece linearly (writing
full paragraphs cohesively rather than making a rought draft that is repetitively edited up)
has been really helpful to my writing process and I feel that it shows in my work and line of
reasoning so far. I just need to write my summarizing/conclusion final paragraph but first I
wanted the spectacle of peer editing to provide me with the necessary insight to best
highlight the central ideas of the essay.

Draft #2

The liminal growth opportunity of travel and how it has become unapparently accessible:

Extended travel in youth populations has dramatically gained popularity as new

generations look abroad to gain perspective on their own developing identities. The
unfamiliarity associated with such travel poses philosophical and psychological questions
that help to guide young adults towards new paths of self-discovery without necessarily
creating cause for the commonly perpetuated concerns of lack of stability, viability, or a
sense of belonging. The liminal spaces made available by the unfamiliarity of extended
travel can deeply and richly impact the development of a traveler’s sense of self, and a sort
of lifestyle that advocates for this kind of space to grow is much more attainable than it
may seem.

Long-term travel consists of unique developmental contributions to the growth of young

travelers as they are cast into various situations of wonder and discomfort. According to
academic reviewer Emily Kearns, travel functions as an ego-constructive process that
allows travelers to reestablish the Self by offering a theoretical framework to explore
liminal spaces. The loss of convention provided by such extended excursions prompts the
exploration of completely new settings, both mentally and physically. These mental
frameworks for change are indicative of new “environments” for the mind and it is fitting
that physical relocation in a literal sense can have such a profound ability to assist in the
reorganization of the mindscape. Kearns emphasizes how it is valuable to examine tourism,
pilgrimages, and “ritual literatures” as mediums of transformation due to their ability to
offer a certain liminal headspace that is stimulative of growth. Analyzing a series of
experiments conducted using in-depth interviews with British tourists before and after
their “long-haul” travel experiences seeking to question the effects of tourism on
conceptions of identity, self, and personhood, Luke Desforges found it commonly
articulated that long-haul travel was closely associated with the questioning of these
tourists’ identities and lifestyles. The mental space provided by a change of pace in
combination with prominent questions that seek to reanalyze one’s lifestyle and ego
provide crucial factors for the reassessment of identity in an individual, and it is because of
this breaking down of convention and mental boundaries that catalyzes the stimulation of
identity development.

Beyond stimulus for the reassessment of what is already there, Vered Amit theorizes that
newfound capacities for change as a whole are initially discovered through the transition
provided to young travelers. Because travelers are constantly challenged to confront and
overcome uncertainties, their capacity for change is enhanced as they explore the
transitional space between brought on by their lifestyle’s unpredictability. She emphasizes
that, historically, the notion of transition has always accompanied any kind of formative life
crisis events such as birth, ‘social puberty,’ marriage, parenthood, death, etc., and that the
passage within a liminal or transitional period between the separation of one state to
another has especially resonated in anthropological literature surrounding tourism.
Stemming from this initial literature, liminality and transition became a sort of identity and
brand for the concept of travel and would continue to affect how it was perceived; Amit
argues that this deeply contributed to the conceptual change toward paradigms of
exploring liminality as a core identifying aspect of tourism. This identity of tourism as a
liminal space has profoundly influenced its function as the industry developed and Amit
argues that the inherently transitional nature of tourism, influenced by the prominence of
liminality in the literature that was foundational to the idea of tourism, can provoke
transitional periods in travelers as they undergo intrinsic and “ongoing oscillation[s]
between structure and anti-structure”. As youth populations find themselves in the
developmental liminal spaces procured by travel, they will not only use the opportunity
brought by the redesigned mental landscape to reorganize what currently exists, but also
expand their capacities for change entirely.

Extended travel as a vehicle for self-discovery through the liminal spaces and transitional
periods that are inherent to such discomfort has been gaining popularity as “lifestyle
migration” (as referred to by lifestyle sociologists Michaela Benson and Karen O'Reilly) as
an evermore prominent option to seek something new. Lifestyle migration describes
migration as a means of seeking a more fulfilling way of life elsewhere, and the
phenomenon is quickly spreading but is inherently disparate, and little can be said with
confidence about the economic, sociological, and cultural impacts that the trend can have
by any end of the migratory chain. The trend has been gaining momentum as modern
globalization continues to provide more flexible opportunities as living standards in
traditional environments are on the rise. Benson & O’Reilly comment that common
motivations for lifestyle migration tie closely to those often discussed with more temporary
travel such as the ideology of escape and the continued development of identity. As
incentives to seek new environments and the lifestyles that accompany them increase,
whether that be by default environments becoming less desirable or opportunities to
relocate becoming more accessible across a broader range of economic privilege, the
phenomenon of lifestyle migration as a means of solving a problem will continue to grow
and diversify.

In his book, I Don’t Want to Grow Up: Life Liberty, and Happiness Without a Career, Author
Scott Stillman discusses how much of the yearning for change brought by a change in
lifestyle can be satisfied through a repriotization of the way one lives. Much like how
lifestyle migration seeks to use travel as a vehicle for seeking a more fulfilling life
elsewhere, Stillman broadens up the conversation to discuss a change of lifestyle according
to following one;s passion. He that writes that “Life is about priorities — you must decide
what’s truly important and what’s not. If your passion is photography, you’re going to need
good cameras and lenses. If you’re a surfer, you’re going to need good surfboards and
wetsuits. When these items wear out, you’re going to need replacements. This is non-
negotiable. / Many people won’t think twice about upgrading an appliance, but they will
put off a new piece of gear for years. Prioritizing lifestyle means putting off the appliance”
(Stillman 99). Throughout the work, Stillman provides anecdotes about how he was able to
better live for what he is passionate about rather than for preconceived lifestyle norms, or
as he refers to it, not growing up. Stillman himself admits to being a lifestyle migrator, but
he is also a beacon, a messenger, an encouragement for the movement in priotizing this
way of life. In an example of Stillman’s own repriotization of his life, he discusses how he
moved to Colorado to be closer to the outdoors because he and his wife had no
occupational requirement to work at any specific location and how they opted for a more
secluded home outside of the city and nearer to various hikes than a typical suburban
neighborhood with more transportational convenience. It is here that the barriers between
an aspiring traveler and their desired lifestyle are flipped and blurred, and as more people
seek to life a life beyond convention, those people will discover much more ease in their
transition through a systemic reprioritization of their way of life.

In Amit’s ‘Before I Settle Down’: Youth Travel and Enduring Life Course Paradigms, she
discusses how the popularization and normalization of youth travel begs the question of
redefining our concept of adulthood due to the shift away from conventional “adult” traits
of these travelers’ lifestyles. She argues that such travel is able to demand a restructuring of
our conception of adulthood due to many of its implications, one being the increased
societal emphasis on individuality that it poses. When someone is able become their own
guide for their lifestyle, as is typically true in some fashion in youth travel, they move away
from traditional structures offered by consistent and stable occupations and locations that
offer conformative norms and dampen one’s emphasis on a kind of individuality that would
appear when isolated from these influences. She discusses how the shying away from a
series of “fixed stages and roles” highlights a diversity and fragmentation of paths that do
not necessarily fall into our typical perceptions of “adulthood.” On the other side of the
coin, she discusses the increasing barrier to entry into more conventional paths such as the
rising competitiveness of college admissions and job landscapes to even achieve these
normalized paths. To me, this increased weight of even a typical lifestyle again brings up
Stillman’s question of prioritization — what about these conventional paths matter?

● Summarizing conclusion
○ Travel relates to the development of identity how?
○ What misconceptions surround travel and are these just barriers to be
hurdled?
■ Yes - viability, stability, belonging
○ End on some note of hope - “get out there!”